


through the wire

by marcaskane (noblydonedonnanoble)



Series: what a feeling [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-09 00:33:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5518859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblydonedonnanoble/pseuds/marcaskane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abby's younger brother is getting married in one week. When she received her RSVP six months ago, she told her family that she'd be bringing her serious, long-term boyfriend as her plus-one. Only problem is, Abby doesn't have a boyfriend. Marcus Kane is the solution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was originally going to post this all in one go when it was complete, but I'm doing this as a promise to myself, and to you, that I will finish it before my winter break ends. 
> 
> Because of the nature of the story, there will be several original characters, but do expect cameos from characters within the 100 canon.
> 
> Title taken from "What a Feeling" by One Direction.

**Wednesday, June 24 th**

 

                Abby Griffin has been on edge all day.

                It was bad enough when she was fretting over her gradebook and trying to finalize her students’ grades for the semester. But then, to make matters worse, she got an email from her mother, reminding her to verify her flight plans.

                An email that concluded, _I can’t wait to meet this mysterious man you’ve refused to tell us anything about._

                That email has been the only thing on her mind for the past hour and a half. As she sits in the end-of-the-year meeting with the other senior year teachers, it takes everything in her to maintain some show of attentiveness. But internally, her thoughts are jumbled.

                She received the save the date for her brother’s wedding nearly six months ago. She figured that there would be plenty of time to find a tolerable man whom she could bring along, and so she didn’t even hesitate in asserting that she’d be bringing a plus-one.

                But in the time since, it has all grown into something quite out of her control. Her parents are convinced that she’s got a serious boyfriend, except she hasn’t even been out with a man in two months.

                 It’s not that Abby has any problem with being single. Honestly, she doesn’t, and she doesn’t believe that it’s anything to be ashamed of. If it were any other sort of family function, she wouldn’t mind going alone.

                There’s just something about weddings. They promote the idea too much that being in a relationship is the only way to reach a state of blissful happiness. It certainly doesn’t help that this is the wedding for her baby brother, who’d always had trouble getting a girl to even go out to a movie with him in high school. And here he is, getting married before her.

                Very abruptly—or probably not abruptly, but it seems so to Abby—the meeting begins to disperse. She looks around in vague confusion as everyone begins to rise from their seats.

                “Thelonious just dismissed us,” comes a voice from her right.

                She jolts and looks over, meeting the gaze of Marcus Kane, who’s leaning on the back his chair and blinking at her with a gentle smirk.

                Despite the fact that he’s probably her closest friend at the school, she blushes, feeling embarrassed that he caught her zoning out. “Was it very obvious that I wasn’t paying attention?”

                “Not at all. It’s almost summer, I’d say most of the staff has been fading fast for the past three days.”

                Abby doesn’t bother to explain that _unlike_ most of the staff, she’s hoping desperately for an excuse to prolong her work. Anything to get out of the embarrassment of going back home without a boyfriend.

                Instead, she chuckles. “Meanwhile you were as attentive as always.”

                “Well,” he shrugs modestly, then jokes, “Not everyone can have a life.” He pauses while Abby stands up and arranges her things. “Are you on your way home?”

                “I have to stop by my classroom for a minute but after that, yes. If you don’t mind the detour we can head out together.”

                “Yeah, of course.” He gestures that she lead the way and they depart together, bidding farewell to the other teachers still lingering in the conference room.

                “So do you have anything exciting planned for the summer?” Abby asks once they’ve cleared the crowd.

                Marcus seems to scan through a calendar in his head. “Nothing until late July, actually. I’ll be going to New York for a family reunion.”

                “Oh, that does sound exciting! I’m jealous. My family doesn’t really do reunions.” Instead they just do weddings that they’ve planned for the sole purpose of stressing Abby out.

                “Neither does mine, usually. My uncle’s trying to start a tradition.” He laughs down at the ground. “Um, what about you? What’ve you got in store?”

                “Going home for my brother’s wedding in next week.”

                “Your brother’s getting married? That’s great!” Almost as soon as the words come out of his mouth, Marcus seems to realize that she suddenly looks more irritated than excited. “Not… not great…” he says slowly.

                She looks up at him and gives him a small, reluctant smile. “No, it is, it’s just… I did something that I probably shouldn’t have.”

                “What?”

                “I told my mom that I was bringing my long-term boyfriend.”

                Marcus stares at her for a few moments. “You don’t have a boyfriend.”

                “Hence my problem.” She realizes that they’re about to reach her classroom and she swerves abruptly, startling Marcus and nearly bumping into him.

                But he adjusts his heading accordingly and he leans against the wall while she fiddles with her keys. “You could hire an escort.”

                Abby gives him a look, trying to appear scandalized but a trace of amusement peeks through. “An escort,” she echoes.

                “That’s what they would do in the movies,” he explains, as though it’s the most logical thing in the world.

                She gets the door open and Marcus follows her inside, sitting on one of the tables while she arranges her belongings in her bag. “As clever as your suggestion might be, Marcus, I think I should probably avoid bringing an escort to my little brother’s wedding.”

                “What about tinder?”

                Abby looks up and smirks at him. He’s watching her quite innocently from his perch. Looking back down, she says, “You’re full of clever ideas, aren’t you?”

                “I try.”

                “Let me know when you think of something that’s not insane, then,” she instructs as she slings her bag over her shoulder. “The less embarrassing, the better.”

                She leads him out of the classroom, and once again he stands back while she locks the door.

                It’s in this moment that she begins to think.

                Turning away from the door, she crosses one arm over her chest and sets her chin on her other hand, where it settles down in the space between the knuckles of two fingers. She looks him up and down. He probably wouldn’t look half-bad in black tie.

                “Marcus, do you own a tux?”

                He looks at her warily. “Why do I feel like I know where this is going?”

                “Weddings can be fun sometimes,” Abby offers, rather than responding to his question. “If you’ve just got a good friend to sit with and make fun of all of the drunken relatives…”

                “Believe it or not, that doesn’t inspire much excitement in me.”

                She lets out a loud sigh and begins walking again, briefly concerned that he’ll let her stroll off alone just for the sake of putting an end to this conversation. But he follows. Excellent: that means he’s probably at least partially convinced.

                “It’ll be in California, and we'd be staying in my family's vacation house, right on the beach.” She hesitates. “The airline tickets are already paid for.”

                Marcus glances down at her. “You bought plane tickets for your imaginary boyfriend?”

                “I figured I’d get one!” Abby exclaims. She is so not interested in being judged by Marcus right now. But his question brings something else to mind and she says, more quietly, “Look Marcus, I know there are probably plenty of things that you’d rather be doing than playing my boyfriend at a family wedding but I just… I’m feeling a bit stuck. It’s either you or the imaginary escort.”

                “Or you could tell your family the truth,” Marcus points out.

                She raises her eyebrows at him. “That would be even more embarrassing than showing up alone would have been. Don’t you think you’d rather hang out with me on the beach for a few days?”

                A ‘no’ appears to be on the tip of his tongue, but then he looks over to Abby and must see the desperation in her eyes because he hesitates. “Wouldn’t your family pick up on the fact that you and I aren’t actually together?”

                Her face falls a little bit. “You’re probably right,” she says slowly.

                They reach the exit and Marcus steps outside first, holding the door open for Abby. “Yeah. We can hardly show up and claim that we’re in a serious relationship when we haven’t even—”

                “Let’s go on a date, then.”

                “Go on a _what_?”

                “A date. Just to get more comfortable with each other. Get a bit dressed up, go out for dinner and maybe a movie… the whole nine yards. We always say we need to spend more time together outside of work,” she adds at the sight of his heavy frown.

                “Sure, but I was hardly picturing… a fake date,” he says carefully.

                “Don’t think of it as a fake date, though. It’s just… you and me hanging out. We’ve done that plenty. There just might be some additional kissing at the end.”

                Marcus freezes in the middle of the parking lot. “What, now we’re adding kissing?”

                “Well, yeah. I hardly want the first time I kiss you to be in front of my parents.” A car draws near, some teacher trying to get out of the lot and he taps on his horn lightly, urging them out of the way. Abby grabs Marcus’s arm and tugs him on toward her car. “And if we’re in a serious relationship, of course there’s going to be some kissing.”

                “But… I’ve never really been one for PDA.”

                Abby looks at him as though he’s grown a second head. “I’m not talking about intense make-out sessions. When you’re into someone, aren’t you ever in an everyday situation where they just say or do something that makes you want to kiss them?”

                “Yes.” The word comes out of Marcus’s mouth so quickly that it seems to startle him, and he rushes to add, “I mean, I guess so. But that’s not… this isn’t… we’re not dating,” he concludes dumbly.

                “That doesn’t matter, though. I like having you around. And you like spending time with me, right?”

                “I do.”

                She shrugs. “So why not just come on an all-expenses paid trip to California and spend time with me there?” They reach Abby’s car and she unlocks it, chucking her stuff into her back seat before leaning against the frame of the car. “Of course I can’t force you into anything but I’d… I genuinely would like having you with me, Marcus. It’s going to be a stressful couple of days and you would be a friendly face.”

                He stares down at her. His jaw clenches and she’s nearly convinced that he’s going to tell her no. But then: “Okay.”

                “Okay?”

                “Yeah. I’ll do it. I’ll masquerade as your serious, long-term boyfriend at your brother’s wedding.” He pauses. “Just as long as we’re clear on how ridiculous that sentence sounds.”

                Abby smiles widely and before Marcus realizes what’s happening, she’s throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him. “You’re a lifesaver, Marcus.” She presses a kiss to his cheek as she pulls away. “An absolute lifesaver.”

                “Let the record show that I still think you should just tell them the truth.”

                “The record shows it.” She opens the driver-side door to her car but instead of settling down inside, she leans against the frame again, looking up at him with fond eyes. “We’ll definitely have to give the practice date thing a go, though. I’ll call you later and we can work out all of the details?”

                “‘Definitely have to?’ What’s that supposed to mean?”

                She chuckles. “It means that you’re blushing, Marcus. Honestly, has no one ever kissed you on the cheek before?”

                “You just caught me by surprise,” he mumbles.

                “Right. We need to not be surprised by things like that.” Abby tucks herself into her car and starts it up, rolling her window down so that they can continue talking.

                Marcus takes this cue and bends down, leaning into the open window. “If we’re doing this, can I plan out our date?”

                Her brow furrows. “That’s your condition? You plan our date?”

                “That’s it.”

                “Alright. I suppose you’re letting me off easy there.”

                He grins widely. “You’d think so.”

                “Marcus…”

                “I’ll talk to you later, dear.” Now he takes Abby by surprise, closing the gap between them and placing a gentle kiss to her lips. But it lasts for less than a second and then he’s not standing close to her anymore, he’s back at his full height and just peering down at her with his hands in his pockets and his mouth curved into an easy smile. “Drive safe, alright?”

                “Uh, yeah, of course.”

                He gives her a small wave before turning away to walk back to his own car, and Abby stares after him for a few moments, feeling vaguely self-conscious and flustered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Saturday, June 27 th**

 

                “Why won’t you tell me where we’re going?”

                Marcus glances away from the road long enough that he can smirk at Abby. “Wouldn’t that spoil the fun?”

                “I really don’t think it would.”

                He doesn’t reply, and Abby petulantly slouches back in her seat. She glances over at him out of the corner of her eye. “You didn’t mention, did you get ahold of a tux?”

                “I did. They’re making a few alterations but it’ll be ready for me to pick up on Monday evening. That’s fine, right?”

                “Yeah, our flight isn’t until Tuesday afternoon, so that shouldn’t be a problem.” After a few brief moments of silence pass: “So where are you taking me?”

                “Are you like this on all of your first dates?”

                “Not really, but this is different.”

                “How so?”

                “You already know that I’m a pain in the ass.”

                Marcus chortles, surprised but amused by her directness. “No you’re not. You just like to have some control over a situation. I can hardly blame you for that.”

                She looks out the window so that he can’t see it when she smiles. “But you won’t put me out of my misery.”

                “Can’t you just trust me and believe that you’re going to enjoy yourself?”

                “I’m undecided.”

                He smiles but doesn’t respond, and the next few minutes are spent in silence.

                “Alright, we’re nearly there,” he says as he reaches an exit and pulls off the highway.

                Abby glances around them, frowning. “Nearly there? All I see is a shopping mall.”

                “I said _nearly_ ,” Marcus says with another laugh. “It’ll just be another two minutes or so. You won’t have to wait much longer, I promise.”

                Even that turns out to be an over-approximation. They pull into the parking lot of a rather sizable complex and Abby jolts at the sight of the identifying sign. “Indoor sports complex? Marcus, what are we doing?”

                “Actually, I figured I’d leave that up to you. C’mon, let’s go.” When they’ve stepped out of the car, Marcus clears his throat and asks, “Mind if I hold your hand? That’s something else we should probably be getting used to.”

                “Of course. You don’t need to ask.”

                The moment they step inside, they enter into a maelstrom. Families, couples, large groups of teenagers are milling around in the wide open entrance area, laughter and shouts filling the space.

                “Welcome!” chirps an eager teenage girl at a desk directly in front of them. “What have the two of you come in for today?”

                “Um, we’re currently undecided. Do you think you could just give us a rundown of your facilities to remind us of the activities you’ve got available?”

                “Sure thing. We are, perhaps, best-known for our climbing walls, but our roller and ice skating rinks are incredibly popular. We also have whirlyball and laser tag arenas—our next pick-up whirlyball and laser tag games will be starting in about five minutes, if you’d like to join, and we also have a few smaller laser tag rooms that you can sign up for if you’d like to play one-on-one. In addition to that, of course, we have our arcade.”

                Marcus turns to look at Abby and cocks his head to the side. “What do you think, Abby? Anything sound particularly appealing?”

                Abby bites her lip and Marcus’s face falls slightly. “Unless you don’t…” he starts.

                “No, no, that’s not it at all,” she rushes to tell him, and her lips quirk up into a smile. “I like the sound of all of this. Feel up to giving a few different things a go?”

                With that, Marcus grins. “Sounds like a plan.”

                The two of them stay at the sports complex for the entire afternoon and into the evening. After a fair amount of time trying out the different climbing walls, they play a few games of laser tag. Abby wins three out of five, and accuses him of letting her win, but he denies it flatly.

                A majority of their time, though, is spent flitting between the roller skating rink and the arcade. They reminisce together about the last time they’d been roller skating – at least twenty years ago, they both agree – and discuss other fond memories from their respective childhoods. They laugh over the tacky arcade games and when Marcus manages to get his name on the top ten high scores on one of the pinball machines, Abby rewards him with a kiss on the cheek.

                “Getting hungry yet?” he asks her eventually.

                She answers in the affirmative, so the two of them turn in their rented skates and return to Marcus’s car.

                 “I hope that wasn’t too painful,” Marcus says.

                Abby shrugs. “It was alright.”

                “What, only alright?” In the fading daylight, Abby can see that he looks genuinely concerned.

                “No, of course not, I’m only teasing,” she says, chuckling. “I had more fun than I can remember having in a very long time. We should go again.”

                “Yeah?”

                “Definitely.” Marcus only has a brief moment to feel pleased with himself before Abby continues, “Now you’ll at least tell me where we’re going to eat dinner, right?”

                He looks away from the road just long enough to raise his eyebrows. “That wasn’t enough to make you trust my good taste?”

                Abby shakes her head vehemently, enough so that Marcus can certainly see it out of the corner of his eye. “Never.”

                So he lets out a sigh. “We’re going to my place. I was planning on cooking dinner for you.”

                “Oh.” There’s surprise evident in her tone. “That would be… I’d like that very much.”

                “Glad to hear it.” He smiles at her one more time. “I told you there was no reason to doubt me.”

                They reach his apartment in good time. As Marcus leads her inside, he begins to fidget, hesitating as he stops in front of his own door. “Just to warn you, my place is… pretty sparse. I don’t have people over very often.”

                “I won’t judge,” Abby says gently. She feels rather touched that he’s concerned about her opinion.

                He nods and unlocks the door, pushing it open and gesturing that Abby step inside.

                Abby glances back at Marcus and she can’t help but giggle before she turns away to step further into the apartment. The decorations are rather few and far between and she knows that it’s probably not his intention, but he’s somehow managed to make it look minimalistic in an almost stylish way.

                “I think this place looks great,” she announces.

                Marcus laughs appreciatively. “That’s a weight off my shoulders.”

                Prompted by a fair amount of poking and prodding by Abby, Marcus agrees that she can help him to prepare their meal, and the next half hour or so is occupied by them gathering his prepped ingredients to throw their dinner together. It feels rather easy, puttering around the kitchen together—Abby immediately feels as though they’ve done it dozens of times. There’s something so domestic about it.

                While she’s chopping some apples, her eyes briefly glaze over as she contemplates the other men she’s felt so at ease with.

                None come to mind.

                The intensity of the situation sets in after that. Thus far, Abby had been thinking very firmly of this little hang-out of theirs as a platonic sort of interaction that’s only masquerading as a date, but in a rush, she remembers just how very date-like it’s supposed to be, which is emphasized when Marcus insists that she sit down and let him serve dinner.

                She takes a bite and lets out a groan of delight. “Christ, Marcus, you always blow me away with your cooking.”

                He chuckles, pleased. “This is nothing. I would have done more if I had a more solid idea of when we’d be getting back…”

                “Don’t be ridiculous, you’ve blown me away as it is.”

                For a few moments they eat in silence, but then Marcus clears his throat and says, carefully, “So Abby, I was wondering, if you want this… whole thing to work, do you think we should agree on a story for how we got together? In case anyone asks or something.”

                “Oh, fuck, I hadn’t even thought of that…” she says. “Do you think that’s likely?”

                Marcus stares at her. “Have you never brought someone to meet your family before? That’s usually the first question, with my family at least.”

                “Right, well, my first serious boyfriend was a close family friend and after he d—” She trails off abruptly, gaze drifting down toward her plate, but she looks right back up and starts in again. “After him I never really… had a boyfriend for long enough to bring him home with me. So I’ll just have to take your word for it. What do you think our story should be?”

                “Well, we’ve been working together for nearly ten years now, so I guess we fell for each other gradually, right?”

                “Yeah, that makes sense.”

                “Did I ask you out?”

                Abby bursts out laughing, but immediately quiets when she sees that Marcus looks mildly affronted. “No, I asked you out. You were dragging your feet because you still weren’t sure whether I was interested.”

                “I would’ve gotten around to it eventually,” Marcus mutters.

                “No need to look so hurt, Marcus,” she says with another chuckle. “You kissed me first, though, is that fair?”

                “I kissed you when I picked you up because I didn’t want to wait any longer.”

                She smiles and nods approvingly, blushing despite her knowledge that this is all entirely fabricated. “I like that. Alright. What did we do on our first date?”

                “Same as we’re doing right now. Just, y’know, to make it a little bit easier to remember.”

                “Good point. And how long have we been dating? It has to be at least seven months—”

                “Why not just say a year?”

                Abby hesitates, her eyes widening. “A year? I don’t know if my family would like thinking that I’ve kept them in the dark that long.”

                “But what’ve you got to lose?”

                She considers this for a moment, evidently surprised by the question. “Fair enough. Okay, today’s our one-year anniversary, then. Oh, that’s so sweet, that means we’re re-doing our first date for our anniversary.” When Marcus raises his eyebrows at her, she counters, “You have to admit that’s a cute couple-y thing to do.”

                He smirks and shrugs, not giving her an answer one way or another. “When did we decide to become a couple, officially?” he asks instead.

                “At the end of our first date,” Abby announces, so quickly that it surprises him, and she rushes to explain, “I mean, we’d both been sitting on our hands for quite a while but we knew where we stood. We wanted this.”

                “Yeah, okay,” Marcus agrees softly. “I like the sound of that.”

                Abby smiles. “Alright. Anything else crucial come to mind?”

                “Maybe a good reason for not letting them know about me sooner? I feel like they’ll want to know that.”

                Immediately, her smile fades and Marcus gets the distinct impression that he’s asked a very foolish question. “I just didn’t want to get my hopes up. It was nothing about you, it was my own paranoia.”

                “What do you mean by that?” He leans forward in his seat, looking at Abby with concern in his eyes. “Paranoia about what?”

                “Come now, that’s hardly first date talk,” Abby tells him, doing her best to brush it off as a joke. “I can tell you about it some other time, but just… my family will understand, okay? If I tell them that, they’ll understand.”

                Marcus is clearly still curious, but he leaves the subject alone. “Alright. In that case, I think you’re good. Any other questions they have will probably be simple, things that we already have an answer to.”

                “Hang on, what about… I mean, if we’ve been dating for a year, don’t you think we might have to field some questions about… marriage?”

                “Oh, Christ,” he mutters, running a hand through his hair. “That question is uncomfortable enough when you’re actually in a relationship. You’re right, we’d be insane not to expect that.” As he considers the question, he eats two bites of food, chewing very carefully. Then: “We’ve discussed it as an eventuality, we like the idea that it’s somewhere down the line—”

                “But we’re not rushing into anything,” Abby finishes. When he nods the affirmative, she chuckles. “Good, we’re on the same page. Literally as well as in this little narrative of ours.”

                The fine details of their relationship established, they spend the rest of the meal discussing their families. Over the years, they have of course gleaned bits and pieces of information about each other’s loved ones, but now they discuss them in detail. Marcus describes his childhood growing up with a single mother, and Abby regales him with stories about the extended family that he’ll be meeting in only a few days’ time.

                For nearly half an hour, their plates sit empty in front of them before Marcus gets up and fetches their dessert, which takes them, if possible, even longer to eat. Eventually, though, a stretch of silence spans between them and it is then that Marcus pushes away from the table and says, “Well, I think I should start clearing up.”

                “Let me help you,” Abby declares immediately.

                This time he doesn’t even try to argue with her, just lets her grab some of the empty dishes from the table and follow him into the kitchen. “Would you rather wash or dry?”

                “I’ll wash.”

                Again, they wash the dishes in a companionable silence. Marcus is humming to himself but it’s so quietly that Abby wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t know that he’s doing it. Meanwhile, she’s just trying to figure out when the right time would be to kiss him.

                She knows that this was an inevitable part of their evening. After all, the whole point of them going on a date was to familiarize themselves with the idea of being in a relationship together. And in and of itself, it feels far more natural than she could have possibly expected. But she finds that she’s genuinely nervous about kissing him. She doesn’t want to feel like she’s imposing any more than she is already.

                But Marcus beats her to the punch. As she hands over the final plate so that he can clean it, he takes it in one hand and their fingers bump and he sets it on the drying rack still soaking wet. “Abby.”

                Maybe she should know what’s coming but it somehow takes her by surprise when she looks up at him and he reaches down, grabbing her at the nape of the neck and leaning down to kiss her.

                Unlike the first time he kissed her, though, when it was over before it had even started, he takes a tentative step forward and presses into her more. And unlike the first time, she gets over her surprise quickly, deepening the kiss without a second thought. Her fingers of one hand curl into his hair, and with her other hand she clutches onto his shoulder as though he is the only thing anchoring her to the world.

                One of them parts their lips – Abby probably wouldn’t be able to say which one if her life depended on it – and the other follows suit and suddenly she is lost in the taste of his mouth. Her heart is thudding in her chest and for the briefest of moments she wonders why she never considered the possibility that Marcus might be such a spectacular kisser and—

                And Abby thuds back to earth the moment Marcus pulls away to catch his breath. And she immediately wonders what she was thinking, getting quite so caught up in kissing him when the most they’ll have to worry about is the occasional peck on the lips.

                “Sorry,” he says carefully, trying to read her expression. “Was that… was that too much? I know you probably aren’t planning on kissing like that in front of your family but I thought that might be a way to… break the ice,” Marcus offers.

                “No, no, you’re… that was fine.” Other than the fact that she can’t remember the last time that anyone kissed her like that, it was fine. “Consider the ice broken.”

                Which, admittedly, he successfully did. Because when he drops her at home that night and presses a brief, chaste kiss to her lips, she takes it in stride. No blush creeps up her cheeks. Maybe she feels a stirring in her gut, but she ignores it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Tuesday, June 30 th**

 

                “Tell me about my aunt Julie again,” Abby instructs.

                Marcus turns his gaze away from the airplane window to look over at her, a smirk playing at his lips. “Abby, we’ve gone through your entire family tree about five times. I promise you I’ve got it down.”

                “Then you’ll have no problem telling me about Julie,” she insists.

                He is saved from having to answer right away by the pilot, who comes over the speaker to announce that they should return to their seats in preparation for their landing.

                “Oh, thank God, the sooner we get off of this plane the better,” he grumbles. The plane shifts a little bit in the air and he lets out a yelp to signal his discomfort, but then he catches sight of the look that Abby’s giving him and quickly adds, “Julie’s your dad’s sister. She’s a paleontologist, and she likes to knit and read old detective novels in her spare time.” He pauses, then asks, “Am I the only one who feels like I’m reading out dating profiles when I reel this stuff off?”

                She lets out a delighted laugh. “Your point is well taken—I’ll stop drilling you now. I’m sorry if this seems paranoid, I’d just… I want my family to like you, fake boyfriend or not.”

                “I want them to like me too,” Marcus agrees with a gentle smile.

                For a moment it seems as though she’s planning on responding somehow, but then the plane shakes rather spectacularly and she jolts, reaching out to grab ahold of Marcus at the same moment that he reaches out for her. She shuts her eyes as their fingers intertwine and for a moment she feels as though she needs to apologize, but she knows that she needn’t do that, not now. They’re about to jump into the fray, there’s no need to apologize for some hand-holding.

                Besides, apparently his first instinct was also to grab for her.

                “Who did you say is picking us up from the airport, again?”

                “My dad. We’ll be riding back with him and my cousin Arthur, whose flight was supposed to get in about half an hour ago.”

                “Arthur…” Marcus murmurs. “Oh right! He’s the computer science major at MIT, right?”

                The shaking of the plane finally eases up and Abby opens up her eyes, but doesn’t let go of Marcus’s hand, knowing that it’ll start up again once they start their descent. “Yeah. That’s the one. Very smug about it, too.”

                “So you mentioned,” he says with a chuckle. “Not that he has anything on you.”

                Abby looks over at Marcus and sees that he also must have closed his eyes when the plane started shaking, because they’re still shut right now. But his mouth is curled into a fond smile.

                “Undergrad doesn’t matter,” she retorts. Good thing his eyes are closed, though, or he’d see that she’s blushing.

                “You should tell Arthur that, then.” Marcus opens his eyes and turns to look at her and his smile widens. “If you’re too shy to brag about Princeton.”

                She looks away, picking at a nonexistent stray thread on her shirt. “’S got nothing to do with shyness. I just don’t see a point in getting into some immature feud with my cousin over college just to knock him down a peg.”

                Marcus laughs. “Then I’ll call it modesty. In any case, it’s refreshing. That’s the kind of thing my family would hold onto and argue about every time they get drunk.”

                “Yeah?” Abby giggles too, though she trails off quickly when she suddenly feels that they’re starting their descent. As her stomach drops away, she shuts her eyes again and clutches Marcus’s hand tighter. “What else do they argue about?”

                He laughs again. “You’re just trying to get me to distract you.”

                “C’mon Marcus, I really… I hate planes. And I’m sure you hardly mind either.”

                “Okay, okay, let me think.” Marcus clears his throat. “My younger brother. He never went to college, and apparently that makes him a failure. Thankfully I don’t have to hear much about it these days because he got a good job as a park ranger, but you can tell that they still judge him for it.”

                Abby scoffs. “That’s bull shit. Though I suppose since you said they all compare colleges like they have something to prove, I’m not surprised.”

                Since she can’t see him, Marcus squeezes her hand once in agreement. “Yeah, they’re all a bit ridiculous. You’d like my mom, though.”

                “Would I?”

                The wheels touch down on the tarmac and both of them let out a sigh of relief simultaneously. Abby opens her eyes at the same time that he does, and they smile at each other in relief.

                “I think you would, yeah.”

                “Maybe you can introduce me some time,” she says, and she hopes it doesn’t sound like a throwaway response when she genuinely means it.

                She pulls her phone from her pocket and turns it on as they cross the tarmac and pull up to a gate. Their seats are near the very back of the plane, so they have a long wait ahead before they’ll be getting off. While nearly everyone else stands up, they remain seated.

                “I’m going to text my dad. How long do you think it’ll be before we make it to baggage claim?”

                “I’d play it safe and say twenty minutes or so.”

                Abby nods agreeably before typing out a quick text.

                Her father responds almost immediately: _Great, we’ll be waiting. Looking forward to meeting this Marcus character._

                Marcus and Abby finally make it to baggage claim after what feels like hours. Upon determining that their luggage is still making its way from the plane to baggage claim, she turns to him and says, “Okay, why don’t you wait here and keep an eye out for our luggage while I go look for my dad.”

                “Sounds like a plan,” Marcus agrees.

                But before Abby can wander off, an eager voice comes from behind them. “Abby!”

                She spins around and practically sprints through the crowd to reach her father, who is standing a ways away with a Starbucks in one hand, but with his arms outstretched. She falls into a hug and it feels like the safest place in the world. “Hi, dad,” she breathes.

                “How’s it going, darling? Was your flight alright?”

                “As good as it could be. Marcus was a great shoulder to scream into.”

                “Oh yes! Marcus. Speaking of…” Abby’s dad releases his grip on her and she turns to see that Marcus has followed after her curiously, while trying to remain a respectful distance away. “Is this him?”

                For sudden lack of words, she simply nods and says, “Yes.”

                She finds that she is actually, somehow, incredibly nervous. This feels like a big deal in a way that she knows it’s not.

                But her father’s stern gaze cracks the moment Marcus reaches out a hand and says, “Hello, I’m Marcus Kane, it’s great to meet you Mister—”

                “Don’t be ridiculous, there’s no need for handshakes,” Abby’s father exclaims with a chuckle as he swats Marcus’s hand away and pulls him into a hug. “And please, just call me Kevin.”

                “Okay, Kevin, then.” Marcus chuckles as Kevin lets go and steps back.

                “That’s better. It’s good to meet you too, Marcus, although I have to say that Abby’s told us literally _nothing_ about you. We’ll have a lot of catching up to do these next few days.”

                Marcus grins widely. “Great, I look forward to it.”

                They hear the baggage claim belt jolt to life at the same time and they shuffle closer to the front of the crowd as Marcus introduces himself to Arthur. Abby lets out a sigh of relief as she sees the first few suitcases coming their way. “Thank God, I’m so ready to get settled at home.”

                “Oh, honey, you won’t be able to settle in yet. We’re dropping Arthur off at home and then we’re going out for dinner with Olivia’s family.”

                “Wha—why do we have to go? Nathaniel’s the one marrying her, not me.”

                Kevin laughs. “Honestly I had the same thought, but your mother wants you there and I wasn’t going to argue. Apparently Olivia’s brother and sister will be there too, they’re making it into a whole big thing.”               

                Abby’s brow furrows and she looks to Marcus. “Guess we’re going out for dinner. Are you alright with that?”

                She almost expects him to say no. After all, he agreed to tag along for a wedding, but neither of them expected to be thrust into the fray quite so quickly. But he looks perfectly pleased to nod and say, “Yeah, of course.”

                “Okay. If Marcus wants to go, then I won’t pick a fight.”

                With that, Kevin raises his eyebrows, surprised. “Really? Well, that’s a first.”

                Abby ignores this, though she glances at Marcus to see him smirking and she shares a small smile with him.

                He catches sight of their bags first and scrambles for them; he looks ready to come to fisticuffs with some other guy who’s trying to reach his own suitcase, but he returns triumphant, both of their suitcases in hand. Abby tries to reach out and claim hers, but Marcus scoffs and slings the strap over his shoulder decisively. “Don’t be ridiculous, I’ve got it.”

                “You don’t have to do that,” she tells him quietly as they begin to walk toward the parking garage.

                But Kevin hears and looks back at her. “You do realize you’re allowed to let your boyfriend do something for you every once in a while.”

                Marcus laughs, delighted. “Your dad’s only just met me and he’s already siding with me over you.”

                “I know, now I’m remembering why I never introduced him to my boyfriends.”

                He smirks, then says, carefully, “There is one thing you could do for me, though.”

                “Yeah?”

                Instead of speaking, he holds out his hand. Abby takes it without question, and smiles to herself when he gives her hand a gentle squeeze.

                 They crowd into her father’s car, a beaten-up Prius that’s only barely large enough for the four of them plus three people’s luggage. Marcus and Abby end up in the back seat. Almost immediately, Kevin starts in on the questions.

                “So how did you and Abby meet?”

                Marcus chuckles. “Wow, she really didn’t tell you anything. I’m an English teacher, we’ve worked together for the past nine years.”

                “Nine years! And you’ve been dating how long?”

                “A year this past Saturday,” both of them reply at the same time.

                Kevin meets her eye in the rearview mirror. “Shit, Abby, you’ve been keeping this from us for a year? Your mom’s not going to like that.”

                “I’ve done worse,” she mutters. Marcus sniggers. At full volume, she says, “Well, he’s here now. Isn’t that good enough?”

                “For now.” He clears his throat. “So Marcus, you said you’re an English teacher. How’d you decide to go that route?”

                The rest of the car ride follows in that general fashion, with Kevin asking questions and Marcus answering them. If he’s at all uncomfortable being on the hot seat, he doesn’t look it—he handles himself with grace and answers each question with a smile, even assuring Abby that it’s fine when she points out, “You know Dad, he’s going to have to deal with this all over again with Mom, you could at least lay off a little bit.”

                When they finally arrive, Kevin gives them ten minutes to bring their stuff into the house before they have to head to the restaurant. Once again, Marcus insists on taking Abby’s bag. As they head up the steps to the front door, Abby calls back to her father, “Dad, where are you putting us?”

                “Same room as usual? Why would we put you anywhere else?”

                “Oh.” Her gaze drifts to Marcus briefly, a small frown crossing her face. “It’s just… kind of small.”

                “You didn’t have a problem sharing it with Jake.”

                Abby hesitates, and now she avoids Marcus’s eyes. “Yeah, fair enough. We’ll be down soon.”

                There’s a set of stairs right in the entranceway, and Abby guides him up to the second floor, down the hall to a small corner bedroom.

                Within moments of entering the room, Marcus is standing in front of the window, mouth agape. He drops their bags carelessly on the floor beside him.

                “What is it, Marcus?”

                “Nothing, just… This is one hell of a vacation home, Abby. Maybe the room’s small but you can’t beat the view.”

                “You’re right. Honestly I don’t really stop to think about it anymore.” She joins him at the window, standing with only an inch or two between them. Her mouth curves into a smile as she takes in the view of the beach. “Although that wasn’t really my concern.”

                Marcus looks down at her curiously. “What, then?”

                “Just…” She gestures vaguely behind them. “The bed’s pretty small.”

                He looks at the bed, then back at her, smirking slightly. He lowers his voice and parrots her father: “You didn’t have a problem sharing it with Jake.”

                Even though he intended it to be teasing, Abby’s smile immediately fades. “Please don’t. We can share. It’s fine. I just wanted to make sure that you’re comfortable.”

                “I don’t mind if you don’t.” When she doesn’t respond, something seems to click in Marcus’s head. He cautiously ghosts his hand across her wrist. “Was Jake the boyfriend you mentioned before? I saw the way you reacted when your dad brought him up but I didn’t make the connection until now, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have joked about it.”

                Abby swallows, trying to disregard the lump in her throat. Before she can think about it too hard, she grabs ahold of his hand again in an attempt to ground herself, and when she looks up at him she’s giving him a small smile. “It’s alright, you had no way of knowing. Thank you for apologizing, though, that’s… thank you.”

                The drive to the restaurant is far shorter than the drive from the airport, and in no time, Marcus, Abby, and Kevin are stepping into a maelstrom, joining an already large crowd in the waiting area of the restaurant. They squeeze to the front of the group so that Kevin can inquire after their table, and they find that everyone else has already arrived.

                It’s not until they reach the table that Abby realizes she’s once again holding Marcus’s hand, and she can’t remember who initiated it this time.

                “Abigail!” her mother exclaims, jumping up from her seat and coming around the table so that she can pull her into a hug.

                “Hi Mom.” Her gaze drifts across the rest of the table, taking in Nathaniel, Olivia, and four people who can only be Olivia’s siblings and parents. “Hi Nathaniel, Olivia, it’s great to see you both.”

                Abby’s mother, just like her father, turns her attention to Marcus almost immediately. “And you must be Marcus. I’m Helena. I’m so pleased to finally meet you.”

                “Yeah, same to you.” He laughs when she also hugs him, grinning at Abby over Helena’s shoulder.

                Everybody sits at the table together. Abby and Marcus end up beside one another and, once the rest of the introductions are over with, they pore over the menus.

                “Oh, the alfredo might be good,” Abby muses aloud.

                Marcus glances at the listing in the menu. “Agreed. Careful, though, it says it comes with mushrooms.”

                She looks up at him in surprise. She can’t remember even mentioning to him that she’s allergic to mushrooms, and although it’s not difficult to believe that it’s come up at some point in the time that she’s known him, she’s impressed that he’s remembered. “Good catch, I didn’t notice that.”

                “That’s what I’m here for.”

                “I’m glad to see you’re keeping an eye out for our girl,” Kevin says, giving Marcus a smile.

                Abby’s face heats up, and she stares at the menu very intently until she can feel that her blush has faded away.

                Just as Abby predicted, her mother asks Marcus many of the same questions that he’d answered for her father less than an hour before. She doesn’t like that he’s on the hot seat, not when they’re all at dinner to celebrate Nathaniel and Olivia’s upcoming nuptials. But then it’s Olivia who asks the question that, quite frankly, Abby has been dreading, regardless of how well-formulated their response is: “So how did you two start dating?”

                “Oh, you don’t want to hear about that,” Abby tells her immediately.

                “Sure I do! Especially with how long ago you met, I’d love to know how you realized that you had feelings for each other.”

                Now there’s a question she hadn’t even considered.

                She works very hard not to show how panicked she is, because her mind has gone completely blank. She should be able to come up with some bull shit story but no words are coming to mind.

                But then Marcus speaks. “Well, for me I’d say it was about three years ago. We were coming up on finals and she was insisting on working through lunch to finish her final up because she was behind schedule.”

                “That certainly sounds like Abby,” her brother says with a chuckle.

                Marcus smirks. “Yeah. So I insisted on eating lunch with her in her classroom. And this probably sounds so crazy, it was the smallest thing, but there was this moment… she was leaning over her desk, probably double-checking some equation or something. Her hair was in her eyes, and she stopped what she was doing so that she could pull her hair into a ponytail and in that moment I just… I realized that somehow I’d fallen in love with her without even noticing.”

                Everyone at the table is staring at him in quiet awe, Abby included. Just this small description is enough to make her pulse quicken. She can remember the day that he’s talking about—not vividly, not nearly as well as he’s describing it, but well enough to know that he’s not pulling some story out of nowhere.

                “That’s beautiful, Marcus,” Helena tells him, her voice soft.

                Abby needs time to process this, needs time to figure out where Marcus pulled this story from so quickly. But now everyone is staring at her with the same eagerness. “What about you, Abby? When did you know?”

                She swallows nervously, tracing through her memories in search of a real moment between them. The moment she lands on one, she can’t help but smile at the memory. “Last year I got roped into chaperoning at the winter dance for the first time, and I really didn’t want to be there. But Marcus was chaperoning too and he was determined to make sure that I enjoyed myself. I had more fun than I’d had in years.”

                Her gaze drifts to Marcus, who is the only one not looking at her. Instead, he’s staring at his plate. She longs to know what’s going through his head as she continues. “And I realized that I’m always happiest when I’m with him. Just seeing his car in the parking lot was enough to make my day. It wasn't hard to figure out why.”

                Under the table, he is fidgeting with his hands, and Abby grabs ahold of them without a second thought. He lets out a deep breath and nods imperceptibly.

                “Now can we please talk about something else?”

                Although dinner proceeds with no more instances of discomfort, Abby’s mind is racing. She hadn’t realized precisely how strange this would feel. Furthermore, she can’t shake the feeling that her comments about Marcus came from a place of truth, and she doesn’t want to think about the implications of that possibility.

                She doesn’t have a moment to catch her breath until they are back at home, where she immediately hides away in the bathroom so that she can take a long shower.

                When she returns to her bedroom, Marcus is quietly reading a book, having claimed a side of the bed and changed into a pair of plaid pajama pants and white undershirt. He looks up when he hears her shut the door, giving her a cautious smile. “Have a nice shower?”

                “Yes, it was lovely. Do you want to…?” She gestures vaguely behind her.

                “Nah, I’m alright. I’ll take one in the morning.”

                Abby nods. She goes to her suitcase, storing her clothes from the day before following Marcus’s lead and taking out a book to read. She has barely been seated for two minutes when Marcus says, carefully, “Hey, Abby, about the stories we told at dinner…”

                “Don’t worry about it, Marcus. They were only stories. We were just telling them what they wanted to hear, right?”

                He hesitates a moment. “Yeah. Right. I just didn’t want to leave it hanging in the air.”

                “I understand.” Abby exhales loudly, leans her head on his shoulder, and bites her lip. “I don’t know what I would be doing here if I weren’t with you. I don’t know how I could stand it. It sounds ridiculous and so dramatic but I… I’m so tired of them looking at me like I’m going to shatter.”

                Marcus says nothing, only settles his head against hers and waits in case she wants to continue.

                She doesn’t continue, not at first. Then: “Jake died, Marcus.”

                “I was beginning to wonder.”

                “He and I… we got into a car crash on our way home from our second anniversary dinner. He’d just proposed.”

                At that, he inhales sharply. “Christ.”

                “Yeah.” A weak laugh from Abby. “I never told anyone that part. My parents, they probably assumed we were headed in that direction, but I didn’t want…” She trails off.

                For lack of anything to say, Marcus takes her hand. The feeling of it is so familiar now that Abby immediately feels a little bit safer.

                “When—how long ago was this?” he asks.

                “The April before you and I started working together.”

                Neither of them says a word for what feels like an eternity. Marcus seems to be afraid to pull away first, and Abby’s stomach is fluttering with a warm feeling that she doesn’t want to pursue further but that she can’t bear the thought of letting go of just yet.

                Eventually, she turns her head just so and presses a soft kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for just sitting with me. And for listening.”

                “Any time,” Marcus murmurs.

                Abby knows that he means it, and there’s something very comforting in that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Wednesday, July 1 st**

 

                Guests are arriving over the next two days, and Abby’s parents and brother will be incredibly busy making preparations for the event. Abby doesn’t realize what this means for her and Marcus until she wakes up to find her entire family gone. When she goes downstairs to the kitchen, she finds Marcus, who looks freshly showered and is eating a bowl of cereal.

                He makes a noise when he sees her coming down the hall, trying to swallow a bite of food quickly so that by the time she reaches him he can say, “Morning. Your parents left a note, they’re all going to be out the whole day. They’re doing final fittings and stuff with the bridesmaids and groomsmen. So except for Arthur, I guess we’ve got free reign of the house.”

                “No, Arthur should be gone too. He’s one of the groomsmen, that’s why he flew in so early. So it is just us.”

                “Oh, alright.” Marcus nods agreeably. “Sounds good. Have you got anything in mind for what you’d like to do today, or no?”

                Abby sits in the seat beside him at the table, leaning back and considering him. “Well, we could go into San Francisco if you want. You’ve never been, right?”

                “If you don’t count that one time on layover—”

                She smirks. “I don’t count that one time on layover. Would you like to go, then? Do some tourist things, maybe, Chinatown or Ghirardelli or Alcatraz. Or, alternatively, we could just ride around on trolleys for ten hours before coming home.”

                “Mmm, as tempting as that last option sounds…” This makes Abby laugh and Marcus grins. “I wouldn’t mind the tourist things, though. It was a childhood dream of mine to see Alcatraz.”

                “Let’s do it, then! I want to eat breakfast, but I’ll call the cab company once I’m done and ask them to send someone to pick us up.”

                While Abby prepares an omelet for herself, Marcus lingers in the kitchen, chatting with her about his impression of the family. She briefly steps out onto the porch to see if she can scavenge any basil from their homegrown plant, and while she’s out there, Marcus calls, “Your phone’s ringing.”

                “Who is it?”

                There’s a brief pause as he looks over the caller ID. “Someone named Callie?”

                Abby races back inside to the table and takes her phone from Marcus, answering it eagerly. “Callie! How are you?”

                Laughter from the other end of the phone. “I’m great, Abby. My flight just got in, I was wondering what you’re doing.”

                “Going to Alcatraz. Would you like to come?”

                “Depends. Will I be able to meet this boyfriend of yours that I had to hear about from your brother?”

                She can feel herself blushing as her gaze drifts to Marcus, who is pointedly texting in his seat to give her some feeling of privacy. “Yeah, Marcus is the one who suggested it.” He glances up when he hears his name, looking at her curiously, but she waves him off.

                “Then I’d love to. I’m heading to the cabs right now, should I meet you at your house or in the city?”

                “Come here, it’s closer. You can leave your suitcase here and then we can just keep your cab and all go into the city together.”

                After clarifying that Callie remembers the address, Abby ends the conversation and drops back into her chair with a heavy sigh. “My childhood best friend thinks I’ve kept a boyfriend secret from her for a year,” she says, almost to herself.

                Marcus hesitates for a moment. “You know you could tell her, if you wanted.”

                “I could, but then… I don’t want to end up on a slippery slope. Forgetting who thinks I’m dating you and who doesn’t. Maybe I’ll tell her after this is all over, but for now… it’s probably best if she believes it.”

                “Understood.” Marcus smiles gently, but then he nods back at the stove. “Go on, finish your breakfast. You’ve got me excited for Alcatraz now, I don’t want to sit around forever.”

                She giggles as she returns to the stovetop, where she proceeds to do her best to forget that Marcus’s enthusiasm about a famous prison was enough to make her giggle.

                Callie calls Abby when she’s a few minutes away, and by the time she arrives, Abby and Marcus are standing out on the curb. Callie jumps out of the cab as soon as it’s pulled to a stop, lunging at Abby and hugging her so tightly that Abby temporarily loses the ability to breathe.

                “I can’t believe it’s been so long!” Callie exclaims, loosening her grip. “I last saw you when you were home for Christmas… what was it?”

                “Two years ago.”

                “Two years!” Callie echoes, and that’s enough for her to pull her in tight again. “Unbelievable. I can’t decide which is worse, that it’s been that long since you’ve been home, or that you’ve kept me just as in the dark as your parents about this one.” She nods her head toward Marcus.

                Abby hates this, hates lying to Callie. “I just had to keep this to myself for a while. But he’s here now. Callie, this is Marcus. Marcus, Callie. You’re going to love each other, I promise.”

                By this point, Marcus is unsurprised when Callie immediately goes to hug him rather than shaking his hand. She says, “Well, if he’s good enough to meet your standards, I’m sure that’ll be true. It’s good to meet you, Marcus.”

                “You too. Abby tells me stories about you all the time,” he remarks.

                “Really?” Callie chuckles. “Like what?”

                Marcus looks at Abby and smirks. “I seem to recall a certain story about licorice jelly beans…”

                “The jelly beans! Did she tell you that she was the one who talked me into eating so many in the first place? She told me they were chocolate flavored.”

                He stifles a laugh. “Really? What a coincidence that she kept that part out.”

                Abby rushes to put Callie’s suitcase inside and then returns, and as they pile into the cab, she listens quietly while Marcus and Callie discuss the details of the story. Again, she’s in awe of Marcus and of how well he’s remembered what she described to him. She can’t remember even telling him about it, and he’s discussing the moment with Callie as though he was right there with them when it happened.

                Their drive is comfortable, and as Abby predicted, Marcus and Callie really hit it off. Even though she and Marcus are not actually together, it feels as though she has genuinely just introduced her best friend to her boyfriend, at least if the way that they’re trading stories is anything to go by. And that’s strange. Of course Abby’s absolutely thrilled that two of her best friends are getting along so well. But it’s overwhelming how natural it feels.

                She clenches her hand into a first, squeezing tight, and Marcus must notice her discomfort because he settles his hand over hers. She gives him a small smile, despite the fact that he’s keeping an eye out for her in precisely the way that is making her squirm.

 

. . .

 

                Marcus has been trying to select souvenirs for the past twenty minutes.

                Both Abby and Callie have been to Alcatraz numerous times, and neither of them are planning on purchasing any souvenirs of their own, so they’re loitering outside of the gift shop, waiting for him.

                “Do you remember the last time we were here together?” Callie asks.

                Abby grins. “I do. We were, what, going into our freshman year of college? You flirted with the tour guide the whole time and then you never even called her.”

                “I know, I know, I’m still embarrassed,” Callie agrees with a giggle. “I’d never been the one who had to make the first move before, it was intimidating. And it never gets easier, either, that’s the shitty part. I mean, look at you and Marcus, it took you eight years to realize how great you’d be together.”

                “Right,” Abby says weakly.

                “But you’re lucky,” Callie continues. “I’d kill to find someone who’d look at me like he looks at you. I bet he’d follow you to the ends of the earth.”

                Abby looks into the gift shop and spots Marcus looking over a postcard rack. As though he senses her eyes on him, he looks up. When he sees that she’s watching him, he gives her a wide smile, which she returns before he redirects his attention to the postcards.

                “It’s not hard to see that you feel the same way, though. I haven’t seen you look at anyone like that in years. Not since Jake.”

                That comment is what finally winds Abby’s stomach into knots. Callie can’t be serious. She must just be seeing what she wants to see, seeing what she expects out of a couple.

                And then Marcus has to appear at her side. He’s got a small bag in his hand and his grin begins to fade as he sees Abby and asks, “Abby, are you feeling alright?”

                “Yes. I’m perfectly fine.” She spits the words out and immediately feels bad, so she adds, more gently, “I’m just pretty hungry.”

                He doesn’t press her. He just lightly informs them that he’s done, that he’s ready to go catch the ferry now.

                They find seats on the lower level, and Abby listens as Callie inquires after the souvenirs that Marcus purchased. He shows them to her, identifying a magnet as being intended for his parents, a shot glass for his brother, and a book for himself, which he shows off with particular pride.

                Abby’s so excited for him, and she can’t help smiling at his enthusiasm. But then Callie’s words replay in her head and she starts to feel very warm and very trapped.

                “I’m going to go upstairs for a few minutes,” she says, abruptly jumping out her chair. “I just want to… I’ll be back.”

                Both Marcus and Callie stammer after her, bewildered, but she desperately needs some air. The top deck is crowded, but she finds a section of open space where she can look out at the water without jostling into people on either side and she stands there, taking deep breaths.

                Under a minute later, Abby hears footsteps coming up the stairs. Because of the very possibility that it’s Marcus or Callie, she tries to decide which of them she’d rather it be.

                “Abby.”

                Good. Even now, even when she’s mildly terrified of him, when Marcus is the one to come after her the first thought through her mind is that yes, that’s right. That’s exactly who it should be.

                He joins her at the railing. He leans against it and doesn’t look at her, he just looks out at the water instead. “What’s going on? Honestly.”

                Abby heaves a sigh and tries to ignore the way her voice shakes slightly as she tells him, “It’s really not a big deal. Callie said some things that were… She just surprised me, is all. And I feel weird about lying to her. I hadn’t anticipated how hard it would be and I don’t know why I’m so surprised, because she always seems to see right through me.”

                “So you… want to tell her?”

                “No, no.” If she told the truth right now, Abby suspects that Callie wouldn’t believe her. Which would probably be worse than how things are right now. “It’s just not going the way I expected.”

                “I’ll echo that sentiment,” Marcus says, chuckling. He finally looks over at her, his eyes soft as he says, “Not in a bad way, though, okay? I’m really glad that you brought me. I love your family. And I like seeing this part of you.”

                Abby takes this in. Her thoughts are all jumbled, but from them, she pulls out one in particular, and she flashes back to the week before – was it only a week before? – when she was talking Marcus into joining her on this trip in the first place, when he was being resistant. And rightfully so: this proposition was absolutely ridiculous, and the fact that he’s genuinely enjoying himself is so… touching.

                Before she has time to convince herself that it’s a bad idea, Abby leans in closer. “Can I kiss you?”

                He hesitates, his lips parting slightly as though in question, but then he nods, and she’s kissing him softly. He doesn’t deepen the kiss, but he doesn’t pull back, either; he places one of his hand over hers on the railing, lifting his other hand and cradling her face gently in his palm. He brushes his thumb along her cheek softly, and the easy touch fills her with warmth.

                For the most part Abby refrains from describing anything as “perfect.” She’d be lying if she tried to claim that it was unrelated to how she felt the night that Jake proposed, to how perfect everything seemed then.

                Marcus kisses her, though, and there’s no other word for it. It feels as natural as breathing.

                “Wow, and here I was all worried.” Callie’s voice comes from behind them, and Abby reflexively jumps back, putting distance between herself and Marcus. “Clearly you’re doing alright, though.”

                Abby clears her throat and sweeps her bangs out of her eyes, trying to ignore the fact that she’s blushing. “Yeah, I’m… yeah.” She glances over at Marcus and something about her expression makes him laugh. She’s feeling so overwhelmed, with so many things racing through her mind at once that she can’t help bursting into giggles, too, and she leans into him, pressing her forehead against his shoulder.

                “I’m definitely missing something here,” Callie muses as she comes closer, joining them at the railing and standing on Abby’s other side.

                Yes, that’s putting it lightly.

                From the time that they were first old enough to go into San Francisco by themselves, Abby and Callie have always gone to the same hole-in-the-wall grill for lunch, and that is where they take Marcus. He delights in it, gushing over the homey feel and remarking that it’s the sort of place that tourists would probably feel inclined to avoid.

                They briefly consider other options for what they could do in the city, but the heat of the day is getting to Abby and she finds herself already getting worn out, so she suggests that they just head back to her house.

                More than once on the drive back, she feels herself nodding off, and her head starts to droop onto Marcus’s shoulder a few times. Both he and Callie seem relatively tired themselves, and there’s nowhere near as much chatter as there was on the drive to Alcatraz, but the ride is very comfortable and peaceful.

                “So Callie, want to hang around for a while? Maybe watch a movie?” Abby asks as they near the house.

                Callie laughs. “You always do this, Abby. You’re just going to fall asleep ten minutes in!”

                “I will not,” Abby scowls. “We could do _Pretty Woman_.”

                “Hang on, now, that’s not fair. You know I consider it a sin to say no to _Pretty Woman_.”

                “There’s a pun in there somewhere,” Marcus points out, more to himself than anything. But Abby giggles in response and that’s enough to make him grin. “I’d love to watch _Pretty Woman_. I haven’t seen it in years.”

                “Neither have I,” Abby agrees. “I only ever watch it with Callie.”

                After this, Callie can only sigh loudly and say, “Oh, alright then, you win.”

                In the basement of the house, Abby’s family keeps a sizable entertainment system, with a large flat-screen television and impressive speakers. While Callie claims a large armchair, Marcus settles in on a loveseat and after a moment of hesitation, Abby joins him there.

                Marcus’s arm is stretched out across the back of the seat; as the movie begins, Abby can feel him sliding a few strands of her hair between her thumb and forefinger, and she can’t help but smile to herself.

                One minute, she is watching Richard Gere as he picks Julia Roberts up from her street corner. Callie is leaning forward in her seat eagerly. Marcus is eating a handful of popcorn. Abby’s eyelids are drooping and she swears to herself that she won’t fall asleep, if only to prove Callie wrong.

                Next thing she knows, the movie is not on anymore. Her head has lolled onto Marcus’s shoulder, and as she sits up and opens her eyes, she becomes abruptly aware of the uncomfortable taste of sleep in her mouth.

                “Callie asked me to convey her smugness to you,” Marcus says.

                Abby rubs her eyes and looks over at Marcus, taking in the book in his lap and the mug of coffee on the end table beside him, which looks to be nearly empty. “How long have I been asleep?”

                “Maybe two hours? We stopped the movie when we saw that you’d fallen asleep.”

                “What, and you’ve been sitting here this whole time?”

                He shrugs this off as nothing. “Yeah. We chatted for a while and then she brought me my book before she left.”

                “Oh.” Abby’s face falls. “She didn’t stick around?”

                Marcus shook his head. “No, her girlfriend is coming in later tonight and Callie wants to be at the hotel when she gets there.”

                “Right, right, she mentioned that.” Abby squeezes her eyes shut and yawns, then digs her phone out of her pocket and glances at it. “Well, what would you like to do for dinner? My dad texted me and said they’ll all be gone until late, so it’s just us.”

                “We could order something, maybe? And maybe actually watch _Pretty Woman_.”

                She giggles and nods. “Sounds good to me. We have some take-out menus for nearby restaurants in the kitchen, I’ll go grab them.”

                For nearly twenty minutes, they deliberate over what type of food they want, and after deciding that they want pizza, they spend almost as much time choosing between pizza places and deciding on pizza toppings.

                Once Abby orders and replaces the menus in the kitchen, she returns to the basement to start the movie again. But before she can, Marcus says, “Hang on, can I ask you something?”

                “Go ahead.”

                “Why did you kiss me? I’m not bothered, I just… I don’t understand.”

                She wishes that she knew. There’s a feeling accumulating in her gut but she doesn’t understand it. Is it new or is she only just becoming aware of it? Can she even trust it? Maybe she’s just getting carried away with their fake relationship. She can’t even begin to guess.

                “I got carried away, I guess,” Abby tells him weakly. “It seemed like the thing to do at the time.” And that much, at least, she can tell him with certainty.

                “Okay.”  

                Her stomach churns. Maybe she has got feelings for him, but she sure as hell won’t voice the thought aloud. Not until she’s certain.


	5. Chapter 5

**Thursday, July 2 nd**

 

                Despite his best efforts to get up quietly, Marcus accidentally wakes Abby when he goes to take a shower. As it is, she takes advantage of the brief moment of privacy to do the only thing she can think to do: she starts to compose a pro and con list in the notes app on her phone.

                Under any other circumstances, if Abby believed that there were even a chance that she might be interested in a man, she would simply ask him out. Let a date determine whether that interest might lead to something more.

                This is Marcus, though, and that makes things more complicated. None of her friendships with men have been nearly as fruitful as her friendship with Marcus. On the one hand, that suggests that there would be a solid basis for a relationship ( _pro_ ). On the other hand, if she concludes that she’s wrong, bringing it up prematurely might disrupt the ease of their friendship ( _con_ ). And even if she does want him, if he’s not interested it might have the same effect ( _con_ ).

                Her family and Callie like him ( _pro_ ).

                Just from the few times they’ve done it, she knows that he’s a good kisser. Not that that matters.

                Fuck it, of course that matters ( _pro_ ).

                In the two days that they’ve been here, he’s been so cognizant of her mood and has made sure to check in with her in a way that has been comforting, despite the fact that he has every reason to be uncomfortable himself. He’s made her feel so very grounded where she would have otherwise been miserable ( _pro_ ).

                She’s happier around him than she’s been for a long time. She doesn’t know where the words came from when she told her parents so, but she knows that it sure as hell wasn’t a lie ( _pro_ ).

                He’s… good looking. Like, really good looking, if she’s actually taking the time to be honest with herself. Warm eyes and an easy smile and soft hair and strong shoulders and…

                And looking at even this meager list, Abby can already see exactly where this is going.

                If she gives herself time to really consider it, there’s no question that she feels something for Marcus. The only thing stopping her from acknowledging it aloud is the chance that something could go wrong.

                Even though she feels like only a few minutes have passed, the door opens again and Marcus comes inside, his brow furrowing when he sees that Abby is sitting up in bed. “Shit, I didn’t mean to wake you up, I’m so sorry.”

                “No, no, don’t worry about it,” she rushes to reassure him. “I was already coming to, I just gave up on trying to go back to sleep when you got up.”

                Marcus chuckles. “Fair enough. I still feel guilty, though.” He sits down at the foot of the bed, crossing his legs under himself and looking at her curiously. “Have you given much thought to how we’ll spend the day?”

                When Abby’s parents returned the evening prior, they reminded Abby that she would, of course, be expected to come to the rehearsal dinner that evening, but that she and Marcus were free to do whatever they wanted to until then. After some contemplation the night before, the two of them agreed that they’d figure out their plans the next morning. Since then, however, Abby has given it absolutely no thought.

                So she suggests the first thing that comes to mind. “After we eat breakfast, we could go out onto the beach. Swim a little bit, maybe put together a picnic for lunch?”

                “That actually sounds really nice. Let’s do it.”

                Her family’s vacation house leads out to a fairly sizable private beach that they share with several other houses. When they head out together, it is almost completely empty—in the distance, one family is just barely visible, but other than that, they are alone. Abby keeps her shirt and shorts on over her swimsuit anyway, feeling self-conscious in spite of herself. That said, Marcus keeps his shirt on, too, which is a relief; she’s not sure how she be able to stay focused if he took it off.

                Once they’ve laid out their towels, Marcus and Abby settle down together. Both of them have a book with them, and for quite some time, they sit quietly together, reading.

                After a little bit, Marcus sets up his phone to play music. Abby’s not familiar with any of it; it’s classical, she knows that much, but she couldn’t name it if her life depended on it. Marcus, however, occasionally hums along with it absent-mindedly, and Abby listens to him with an amused smile.

                Eventually, though, Abby becomes aware of just how hot it has become and taking a dip in the ocean begins to seem increasingly appealing.

                “I think I’m going to go for a swim,” she tells him finally, dog-earing her book before setting it aside on her towel and rising to her feet and pulling her hair out of its ponytail so that she can tie it into a braid.

                “Yeah? I was kind of thinking of doing the same, I’ll join you.”

                She blinks at him as he bookmarks his own spot and stands up too. “Oh, I probably wasn’t going to stay in for very long.”

                “Me neither, I just want to cool off a bit,” Marcus says, as though he expected her to assume as much. He goes to pull his shirt off and Abby tries very hard not to stare as she finishes braiding her hair. He discards it and looks to her, brushing his hair out of his eyes. “Shall we?”

                “Yes, sure, just… one second,” she says weakly, casting her gaze toward the water as she scrambles out of her clothes. When she looks over to him again, she catches him sweeping his eyes over her and she blushes. “Race you?” she offers.

                Before Marcus can even process this proposition, Abby takes off toward the water. He shouts his objections after her for a moment before following in her wake with an eager laugh. His feet are pounding into the sand as he approaches and Abby’s competitive nature gets the best of her—she breaks into a full-on sprint, stomping into the cool water and giggling with pride. She doesn’t slow down until the water is up to her waist, at which point she falls forward eagerly so that the water completely engulfs her.

                When she surfaces for air, Marcus is standing over her, looking cross. “If you hadn’t had such a head start, I would’ve beaten you.”

                “But you didn’t.” Abby takes a deep breath, settling one hand on her hip. “Your turn to take a dip,” she tells him.

                “No, no, I’m alright.” When she gives him a stern look, he adds, “I don’t give into peer pressure.”

                Abby shrugs. “Suit yourself.” Probably for the best anyway; Marcus is already shirtless, she doesn’t need him to be soaking wet, too. But with a small smile – a flirty smile? – she says, “I’m going to actually enjoy myself and have a swim.”

                She submerges herself again, swimming off toward deeper water.

                This time, Marcus is nowhere to be seen when she rises to get some air, this time in water that comes nearly to her shoulders when she stands on her toes. She looks around curiously for a few moments, then lets out a loud yelp when he pops up less than two feet away, shaking his hair out and grinning at her.

                “What happened to peer pressure?”

                “Changed my mind.” He glances around, then considers her for a moment. She expects him to say something conspiratorial, or profound, but he surprises her. “I bet I could swim farther than you in that direction without breathing.”

                Abby follows his line of sight, looks back at him, and then she can’t help but laugh. “You’re on.”

                She feels like a kid again as the two of them race through the water. When she gives up, she turns over on her back and just floats for a while. Abby would be crazy to try to claim that she doesn’t feel a rush of delight when he swims up next to her and brushes her bangs to the side, his eyes bright and eager and his smile contagious.

                “You weren’t supposed to keep swimming when you ran out of breath,” Marcus says with a smirk.

                “Wow, I had no idea that you’re actually five years old,” she retorts, although she finds his competitiveness endearing. “Besides, I’m not swimming, I’m just drifting a little bit.”

                “I don’t know,” he muses. “You’re definitely kicking your feet a little bit.”

                Abby stops kicking her feet and lets her legs sink below the water. Standing to her full height, she settles her hands on her hips and smirks back at him. “You’re just nitpicking because you don’t like that I can hold my breath longer than you.”

                Marcus scoffs. “That’s ridiculous.”

                Right when she’s about to respond, a voice comes from the shore. “Mr. Kane? Is that you?”

                Both of them spin to look in the direction that the voice is coming from. A teenage girl is standing at the edge of the water with a dog, staring out at them.

                “Is that Kate Mendoza?” Abby asks, at the same time that the girl shouts, “And Ms. Griffin too! Oh my God, hi!”

                “Yeah, I would say that’s probably Kate Mendoza,” he says. “Should we…? We should probably…”

                Abby sighs. “Mhm.”

                They call out a greeting to her as near the shore and when they come close, her dog bounds up to them eagerly. “Riley, c’mon, leave ‘em be,” Kate says with a laugh.

                “No, no, it’s fine,” Marcus rushes to say, crouching down in the shallow water so that he can pet the dog. “Riley, did you say? Beautiful dog.”

                “Thank you. He’s my aunt’s but I’ll gladly take the credit.” She looks between them curiously. “It’s crazy that I ran into you both here. Did you… rent one of these houses for vacation or something?”

                Abby tries to ignore the fact that their student thinks that the two of them are on vacation together. “My parents own one, actually. We’re here for my brother’s wedding.”

                “Oh, that’s exciting!” For a moment, Abby’s convinced that Kate’s going to comment on the elephant in the proverbial room. But instead, she looks to Marcus, who is still happily petting her dog. “Mr. Kane, since I have you here anyway, can I ask you a quick question about the AP summer assignment?”

                Marcus looks up and raises his eyebrows at her. “You’ve already started the summer assignment?”

                Kate shrugs modestly. “Just the readings. Obviously I won’t start the paper until the week before classes start…”

                “I’d expect just as much,” he says with a chuckle. “What’s your question, though?”

                Abby find that she is no longer particularly interested in swimming, so while Marcus answers Kate’s question, she returns to their things and dries off. She pulls her shorts on and for a moment, considers her tee-shirt, but she ultimately decides to leave it off and applies a new layer of sunscreen accordingly.

                She watches Marcus and Kate chatting from afar and notices that Kate says something that seems to give him pause, but he laughs and takes it in stride. They say their goodbyes not long after, and Kate looks over to Abby, calling out, “See you, Ms. Griffin! Congratulations to your brother!”

                “Thank you!” Abby replies, giving her a small wave.

                Marcus comes back and pulls his shirt on without even toweling off, sitting down next to her and swiping some of the water out of his hair. “You’ll never guess what she just told me.”

                “What?”

                “Apparently she and Melanie Ferguson have been trying to figure out for the past year whether you and I are dating.”

                “Don’t teenagers have more interesting things to talk about?”

                He smirks and shrugs. “You’d think so.” He hesitates. “I wonder if she’s going to tell her friends that she ran into us.”

                There’s a question lingering behind his words and Abby knows that he’s testing the waters, but she can’t figure out what he wants to hear. She glances down the beach, watching Kate as she returns to the group of people who must be her family. “Probably,” she says quietly. Almost definitely. Most of the school will probably know by the time they get back in the fall, but she doesn’t say that. Instead, “Want to eat lunch?”

                “Yeah, okay.”

                After they eat lunch, they stay out on the beach for a while longer, reading. Finally, her phone rings and it’s Abby’s father, warning her that they’ll be back in an hour to fetch them for dinner, so they collect their things and head back inside.

                “I’ve never been to a rehearsal wedding dinner before,” Marcus remarks as he peers through his suitcase. “Would you say it’s a tie or no tie sort of situation?”

                “No tie,” Abby says after a moment’s thought. “We’re going to be on a restaurant patio and for your sake I don’t think you’ll want to be in a stuffy outfit, not in this heat. Just a nice button-down should probably be fine.”

                Marcus cringes at the thought. “Fair point. Okay.” He grabs his shirt and dress pants and retreats to the bathroom to give Abby some privacy as they both change.

                She changes out of her swimsuit and by the time Marcus returns, Abby has pulled on her dress and is examining it in the mirror, trying to determine whether it’s the one she wants to wear.

                It’s a very flattering, fitted red dress with short sleeves and a low neckline, and when she saw it two weeks ago in the store, she talked herself into buying it—it was on sale, it’s comfortable, and it looks good on her. But by wearing it, she feels as though she’s calling attention to herself in a way that she never does and she’s still not sure if she likes that.

                But then Marcus says, “Shit, Abby, you look… Now I feel underdressed.”

                Abby spins around to look at him, biting her lip. “Is it too much? I don’t want to overdo it.”

                “No, no, it’s… good. It looks really good. Would you like me to…?” He gestures vaguely toward her, his eyes on the undone zipper of her dress.

                “Okay. Thank you.” Abby sweeps her hair over her shoulder and Marcus takes a few hesitant steps forward out of the doorway, reaching her side.

                She watches his face in the mirror as he zips the dress; he is biting his lip, and when he reaches the top of the dress, his eyes linger at the nape of her neck for a moment, but then he redirects his gaze, meeting her eye in the mirror as he pulls her hair back.

                “You look lovely,” he says softly.

                In that moment, she sees the way that Marcus is looking at her and she has a very distinct realization: every single word that he’s said to her family and Callie about her has been the truth. Or if not the truth, then probably as close to it as he could muster given the circumstances.

                As soon as the thought occurs to her, she cannot believe that it’s taken her so long to pick up on it. His words, his facial expressions, his simplest actions broadcast his love for her and she’s remained oblivious, perhaps willfully. It is simultaneously reassuring and terrifying, and her vague speculations of that morning suddenly feel far more pressing.

                Abby swallows sharply and turns on her heel. “Thank you.” She rises to her tiptoes, kissing him lightly on the cheek. When she pulls away, she notices that Marcus’s collar is askew and she reaches up to fix it with a smile. “You don’t look too bad yourself.”

                “Please, stop, you’re making me blush,” he deadpans.

                She giggles. “C’mon, let’s go downstairs and wait for my dad.”

 

. . .

 

                Most of the guests have already arrived by the time they get to the restaurant, close friends and family gathered out onto the patio together. Abby catches sight of them all and grabs Marcus’s hand instinctively. “Ready to meet everyone?”

                “Lead the way.”

                Family members flash by so quickly that Abby is stunned at how well Marcus absorbed the information that she presented him about them all—each time Abby introduces him to someone new, he immediately has a conversation topic ready. Her family finds him engaging and besides the few people who make tactless references to how pleased they are that she’s finally gotten over Jake, she loses track of the number of times someone says that they’re happy she’s “finally found someone.”

                “Is it just me, or is there a weird connotation in there?” she asks him as her cousin Abigail, Arthur’s sister, wanders away to visit with other family.

                “A weird spinster sort of connotation?” Marcus offers.

                She sniggers and nods. “That’s exactly what it is. I’m rather offended, honestly. I’ve spent years cultivating this spinster image and they have no appreciation for it whatsoever.”

                This comment surprises Marcus and he nearly chokes on a sip of wine from laughing. “If it’s any consolation, I think you make a marvelous spinster.”

                “You always know what a girl wants to hear,” Abby tells him fondly. She jumps in surprise when someone settles their hand on her arm, but when she realizes that it’s only Nathaniel, she sighs in relief and pulls him into a hug. “Oh, thank God it’s only you. I mean, shit, congratulations. I haven’t even seen you since Tuesday, you’ve been running around so much. You alright?”

                Nathaniel laughs in her ear. “I’m getting married tomorrow and your first question is whether I’m alright.” He steps back and claps Marcus on the shoulder as he says, “Hey, Marcus. Yeah, sis, of course I’m alright. How are you faring with the family?”

                “I’m faring.”

                “Well, at the very least they all seem to love Marcus. They keep telling me and Dad that he seems great. If you asked me whether more people have told me today that they like Marcus or congratulated me on my upcoming nuptials, I’d be hard-pressed to give you an answer.”

                Abby looks to Marcus, surprised, and her mouth curves into a fond smile when she sees his blush. “Marcus is very lovable.”

                “He is, you have a lot to be proud of,” Nathaniel agrees. He rolls his eyes, he’s definitely rolling his eyes. “That’s not what I came over here for. I just wanted to know whether you’ll do a toast tomorrow.”

                “What? Are you… really? But I’m not a part of the wedding party.”

                Nathaniel scoffs. “Who gives a fuck? David’s doing the toast at the reception tonight, but you’re my sister and I want you to do a toast tomorrow. Nothing dramatic, just something nice and heart-felt. You can do that, don’t you think?”

                She stammers for an answer for a few moments. “Sure, yes, I’ll do it,” she agrees at last. “I can’t promise anything very good, not when you ask me…” Quick glance at her watch. “Twenty hours from dinner, but yeah, okay.”

                “Oh, you just made my day, c’mere.” He doesn’t have to ask twice and Abby hugs him eagerly, squeezing him tight.

                He races off again in the same frenzy with which he first appeared. She watches him disappear with a pleased little smile on her face. Marcus shoves his hands in his pockets and looks at Abby carefully. “That’s so exciting, Abby. You want to brainstorm ideas for what you might say?”

                “No, I was honestly just going to wing it.” Marcus looks at her sternly and she rushes to add, “Don’t look at me like that! I know essentially what I want to say. Or would you rather I compose a formal draft for you, typed in 12-point Times New Roman? Is MLA citation alright with you, or would you prefer Chicago style?”

                “Unfortunately, I think MLA would be more appropriate for the style of writing. Which is a shame, I get so tired of parenthetical references…”

                Abby smirks but looking him in the eye suddenly feels like too much and she has to turn away. She looks across the crowd and she spots Callie coming toward them.

                “Thank God, someone who I want to talk to,” Abby says, tugging Marcus through the crowd toward her. She lets go of Marcus just long enough so that Callie can give them both a hug. “You shouldn’t have left yesterday without saying goodbye,” Abby grumbles.

                Callie laughs and shakes her head. “What, and incur your wrath upon waking you up? No thanks.”

                Abby rolls her eyes. “Fair enough. So where’s Myra? You said she was due to come in last night, right?”

                “Yeah, she’s catching up with Olivia’s sister. Apparently they were on the same basketball team at Michigan State, isn’t that so crazy?”

                This catches Marcus’s attention. “Myra went to Michigan State? Now that’s a shame, I was so sure she would be lovely.”

                “Marcus,” Abby chides, elbowing him in the side, but she can’t help giggling.

                He’s laughing as he asks, “What? I’m just saying.”

                “Don’t mind him. He went to Michigan, he’s just very invested.”

                Callie smirks, nodding. “I understand. I’d say the two of you could talk about that, but given the current circumstances, you wouldn’t like to hear her bragging so maybe I’ll avoid mentioning it to her for now.”

                “You had to bring that up…” Marcus grumbles. He turns his gaze to Abby and says, more quietly, “She had to bring that up.”

                Abby releases his hand so that she can rub his back in an attempt at reassurance. “Do you know where you two are supposed to be sitting for dinner? I want you at our table.”

                “Nathaniel promised me we would be, yeah.”

                “Oh, I’m so pleased to hear it. C’mon, let’s go find Myra and then we can all get settled.”

                They weave their way through the crowd, reaching Callie’s girlfriend, and she makes the necessary introductions. Everyone begins to make their way to their seats not long after and as their food is being served, Marcus leans over and murmurs, “You know, your family’s great. I don’t know what you were worrying about.”

                “It’s better with you here,” she tells him.

                “Yeah?”

                She bites her lip and nods. If he’s wearing his heart on his sleeve, the least she could do is return the favor. So after considering him for a moment she reaches up and grabs his neck, pulling him close and pressing a chaste kiss to his lips.

                Marcus is the one to end the kiss, but when he does, he presses his forehead against hers and looks her in the eye, frowning slightly. He hesitates, then he says, carefully, “Abby…”

                He pauses, and before he can go on, Olivia’s father is tapping his glass to claim everyone’s attention. The two of them sit back so that they can listen as he thanks everyone for coming, and then everyone starts to eat and Abby forgets that Marcus had been trying to say anything.

                Partway through the meal, though, she gets up to run to the bathroom, and when she comes out, Marcus is standing there, waiting for her.

                “What’s going on, is everything alright?” She takes a few tentative steps toward him, her brow furrowed.

                “Yeah, yeah, I just… there’s something I think we should talk about. I was going to hold off until we got back from this trip but I don’t think I want to wait anymore.”

                Is he trying to say what she thinks he’s trying to say? “Okay, what is it?”

                “I really… What I mean to say is, I feel… Fuck, this is hard,” he mutters, running a hand through his hair in exasperation.

                She can’t believe it. After she’s not even sure how long – probably years, she can’t imagine that he was lying about that – has Marcus chosen her brother’s rehearsal dinner, of all moments, to tell her that he has feelings for her?

                “I love you,” he blurts at last. “Like, actually.”

                Abby blinks up at him. “I know.”

                Of all of the answers that he was expecting, this was clearly not on the list, and he frowns. “Well thank you, Han Solo. What do you mean, you know? How long have you known?”

                She realizes that he’s probably scanning through his memories, trying to figure out what gave him away, and that for all he knows, she figured it out ages ago. For the first time, it occurs to her that she asked a man who’s in love with her to pretend to be her boyfriend, and her stomach sinks. He has probably been so overwhelmingly confused this whole time.

                “God, I’m sorry, Marcus, that makes it sound really bad. I only realized it a few hours ago. Though I probably saw it sooner, I just wasn’t ready to confront what it meant for me.”

                Marcus stares at her and Abby knows that he’s probably trying to appear indifferent but he’s got such a hopeful look in his eyes. “What was there to confront?”

                “That I might feel the same way.” Her voice is barely above a whisper—not intentionally, but there’s a sort of fragility to the moment that she’s scared to ruin by raising her voice once she’s realized.

                “Do you?”

                Abby suddenly feels as though she’s going to cry. Nodding ever so slightly and trying to ignore her watery eyes, she says, “I think I do.”

                He immediately starts to grin wide, looking happier than Abby can remember seeing him… ever. “Yeah?”

                “Yeah.” She laughs and nods again as she tests the words out in her mouth. “I’ve fallen in love with you. And apparently I was the last one to notice. Our students saw it before I did, for God’s sake.”

                Marcus laughs too. His eyes are so soft as he inches a little bit closer and gently tells her, “I’d really like to kiss you now.”

                “Oh, please do,” Abby breathes.

                He kisses her and she feels like she’s breathing for the first time. She rises to her tiptoes and clutches onto him and even when they pull away there is the promise of so much more to come.


	6. Chapter 6

**Friday, July 3 rd**

 

                When Abby wakes up the next morning, she is alone in her room and in a moment of delirium, she feels certain that the past few days have been a bizarre dream. Then she rolls over onto her side and catches sight of Marcus’s bag, and she shuts her eyes again, smiling to herself. They returned home exhausted the night before and she fell asleep in his arms as he mumbled about how lucky he felt. She can still hear him softly repeating the words in her ears.

                The bedroom door opens and he takes careful steps across the room and sits down on the edge of the bed. Abby opens her eyes and smiles up at him, reaching out her hand. “Hi.”

                He takes her hand immediately. “Hi. I didn’t wake you, did I?”

                “Not at all. But since I’m up anyway…” She tugs gently on his hand and he smirks, leaning down as she leans up. They kiss softly; his hair is damp from his shower and she feels a drop of water fall onto her cheek, causing her to giggle into his mouth. Pulling away and licking her lips, Abby murmurs, “What time is it?”

                “Quarter after ten.” Marcus ducks his head down and nuzzles her neck gently. “Your parents wanted to leave for brunch at eleven, right?”

                “Mhm. They picked out a place right near the church. My mom wants to be close in case anything goes wrong before the ceremony.”

                He laughs and settles back, leaning up against the headboard. He pulls Abby along with him and she rests her head onto his chest as he says, “Sure, of course. My mother would be the exact same way.”

                Abby glances over to her own bag and rubs her eyes. “I should take a shower before we go,” she says, more to herself than to him.

                “But I was just getting comfortable.”

                She smiles, pressing a kiss to his chest. “Please don’t, it’s tempting enough to stay right here as it is.”

                “Okay. So stay here and kiss me some more.”

                For just a moment she wants to. After all, she and Marcus have only just sorted themselves out—it feels as though they have so much lost time to make up for. But a shower will only take ten minutes, and the two of them have much longer than that (a lifetime, if she has anything to say about it, although she pushes that fanciful thought away almost as soon as it enters her mind). She chuckles. “I won’t be long.”

                Before running off, Abby gives him a peck on the cheek.

                Marcus is right where she left him when she comes back, although now he’s reclining on his back. His eyes are closed but he hears her enter the room and says, “I’m trying to decide whether I want waffles or pancakes for brunch.”

                “Why not both?” She sits down on the edge of the bed and starts braiding her damp hair.

                “Both.” He hums thoughtfully. “Now that’s an idea. I knew I liked you for a reason.”

                Abby sniggers. “For my appreciation of breakfast foods?”

                “Hey, don’t dismiss it, that’s very important.” When she finishes braiding her hair and looks back over at him, he is blinking up at her, an easy smile on his face. “Most important meal of the day and all that.”

                She nods seriously, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Glancing over at the clock, she observes, “We still have about half an hour, if you still want to…”

                “Oh, thank God, I thought you were going to make me ask.” Marcus grabs her at the waist and pulls her closer to him. “I can’t remember the last time I thought I could waste a whole day away just kissing somebody, but…”

                Abby understands the sentiment. They lie on the bed, pressed close together, and share long, slow kisses, and she feels almost like a teenager again with their light, tentative touches. But there’s none of the same urgent desperation that she remembers from being young; instead, there’s a bubbling sort of eagerness accumulating in her gut and all that she can think, over and over again, is, _I love this_.

                The way he brings her to life is unlike anything she’s experienced in the longest time and now that she’s allowed herself to acknowledge her romantic feelings for Marcus, she can’t believe that she ever saw their relationship as anything different.

                Her parents call up to them, asking if they’re ready to go, and Marcus groans, burying his face in Abby’s chest. “Five more minutes.”

                “No, it’s time to go, babe, c’mon.”

                Marcus jolts up to look at her and for a moment, Abby’s worried that she’s done something wrong. Is he not one for terms of endearment? But then he smiles. “Alright, fine, you’ve talked me into it.”        

                He trails after her down the stairs, holding onto her hand loosely, and as the two of them are putting on their shoes, Abby’s father remarks, “You seem cheery this morning.”

                “Just excited about the wedding, I guess,” Abby says, looking up at her parents with a smile.

                As per Abby’s request, Callie and her girlfriend join them all for brunch. The couple is already waiting at a table when Abby arrives with Marcus and her parents. They all greet each other and for the first fifteen minutes, they chat as they consider the menus and order their food. Marcus continues to deliberate over whether he’d rather get pancakes or waffles, and Abby suggests that they each order one and split them, which puts a smile on his face.

                Callie leans forward eagerly as soon as the waiter has taken all of their orders. “Can you believe Nathaniel and Olivia are actually tying the knot? I still remember when he introduced her to us for the first time.”

                “I know, he was so shy about it,” Abby says, smiling fondly at the memory. Looking over to Marcus, she tells him, “He was always so private with us. Olivia was the first girlfriend he ever brought to meet us and it took him almost a full year to bring her back again.”

                “What went wrong?” Marcus asks.

                “He was apparently convinced that was all hated her. Wouldn’t believe us when we told him otherwise. Callie and I took her to a movie when Nathaniel brought her out here and we had a blast but I guess he’d been scared of it for so long that he went and imagined the worst.”

                Marcus’s eyes widen in surprise. “How could anyone hate her? She seems wonderful.”

                “That’s what we told him!” Callie says with a laugh. “The only thing we hated is that he wouldn’t let us get to know her better!”

                “How did you convince him that he was wrong?”

                Abby chuckles. “I didn’t, not at first. I got him to bring her home, though, by playing along. I pointed out that even if we did hate his girlfriend, clearly he loved her and maybe seeing her more often would show us what all the fuss was about.”

                “Oh, you’re brilliant and I love you,” he tells her eagerly, leaning in to press a kiss to her cheek, but he misses and half catches her mouth. Abby blushes as he pulls away, and Callie and Myra giggle from across the table.

                “Eventually he realized that we never hated her at all,” Callie tells him.

                With that, Abby’s mother leans forward and raises her eyebrows sternly at her daughter. “I hope you’re not under the same illusion, darling.”

                She glances at Marcus and smiles. “Never. I can’t imagine how anyone could hate Marcus.”

                “You’re making me blush,” he murmurs. Abby smirks and pats his leg gently while everyone at the table chuckles.

                About halfway through their meal, Nathaniel calls, panicking about forgetting Olivia’s ring somewhere back at the house and how he needs someone to go fetch it. Abby’s parents promise to get it for him, so the six of them quickly finish eating.

                “We should be back in no time, but maybe go keep an eye on him anyway,” Abby’s mother tells her as she’s climbing into the car. “He seems pretty distressed.”

                This is an understatement: he’s pacing in a frenzy when Abby and the others arrive at the church, grumbling about how something _had_ to go wrong, it’s a mess, he can’t believe his rotten luck, etcetera.

                Nothing that Abby says can get him to calm down. He’s so embarrassed at the thought of how Olivia might react if their parents can’t find the ring.

                “I thought it would be safer if I didn’t give it to David until this afternoon but look at me now,” he laments, dropping down into a chair and burying his face in his hands. “This is a disaster, I wanted this to be perfect.”

                “Hey,” Marcus says carefully, taking a few steps toward him. “What’s the worst that’ll happen if Kevin and Helena can’t find the ring?”

                Something about this question gives Nathaniel pause and he looks up at Marcus abruptly. “What?”

                “Just humor me. Worst case scenario, you’ll… have to tell Olivia that you lost it somewhere at the house, you might have to use a stand-in ring for the ceremony—”

                “You might feel a little embarrassed when David rubs it in your face,” Abby adds.

                “Oh yeah, there’s that,” Marcus agrees, looking over to Abby with a small smile. “But how much harm will that cause, really? I can’t see Olivia getting angry about it, and even if she did, I’m sure she’d see you’re beating yourself up over it enough as it is. Ultimately, I only see this ending two ways: either Kevin and Helena walk through the door with that ring before the wedding, or you and Olivia have a cute story to tell your kids in ten years when the both of you can laugh at it.”

                For a moment, Nathaniel seems ready to argue. But Marcus’s words suddenly seem to hit him fully and he looks down at the floor, nodding slightly. “Yeah, maybe you’re right,” he mumbles.

                “Course I am.” Marcus grins and slaps Nathaniel on the shoulder reassuringly. “Now let’s get your mind off of the ring. Do you want to go over your vows with me, maybe?”

                “Uh, yeah, alright.” Nathaniel rises back to his feet and flattens out his trousers. He nods toward the door. “Let’s go out to the courtyard, I could use some fresh air.”

                “Sounds good to me.”

                Nathaniel heads to the door and Marcus makes to follow him, but before he can, Abby reaches out and settles her hand onto his shoulder. “Hang on.”

                “What is it?”

                “You’re brilliant and I love you,” she informs him, and a pleased grin lights up his face which she wipes away with a kiss. “You told him exactly what he needed to hear. Thank you.”

                He nods, giving her a soft smile. “I just said what I thought would make me feel better if I were in his shoes. We’ll be back soon.”

                The moment he’s gone, Callie lets out a long breath. “That one’s a keeper, Abby.”

                “I know he is.”

 

. . .

 

                Abby’s parents successfully return with the ring, and under two hours later, Nathaniel and Olivia are married, after which all pile into cars to head to the wedding reception. While they’re in the car, she leans closer to Marcus and says, “Did I catch you tearing up in there?”

                “Maybe a touch,” he says, smiling slightly. “I guess I’m just a sucker for weddings.”

                She smiles back at him and clutches his hand a bit tighter, but says nothing. They reach their destination not long after.

                Despite her dismissive comment to Marcus, Abby spent a little while before the wedding drafting a few notes about what to say in her toast. About halfway through the reception, as folks are starting to slow down on eating, Nathaniel stands up and claims everybody’s attention.

                “Hey guys. I’d, uh, like to thank you all for coming. Now traditionally this is the time when my best man would stand up and make some stupid jokes about me, but he got his turn last night. So I’ve asked my older sister to do the toast instead. Unless she says something offensive, in which case it was her idea.”

                A light chuckle passes through the room, the sort of laugh that a joke like that would only get in case of weddings, funerals, and other such forced social interactions. Even so, Nathaniel grins. “Alright, sis, impart some wisdom upon us, please.”

                With this, he retakes his seat, and nods over to Abby with an eager smile. She feels herself blushing as she rises to her feet to survey the crowd, but she ignores her warm cheeks and just gives them a smile of her own.

                Clearing her throat, she pulls her notes out from her throat and glances down at them. “I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to say about Nathaniel,” she starts. “I tried to make a list about stories from when we were kids, things that would embarrass him. I honestly felt almost obligated to produce some tale about a silly thing he’s done. I still have this list, so if you’re curious then by all means, come find me later and I’ll regale you with some wonderful stories from our childhood.”

                Abby holds her sheet of paper up for show and there’s another collective laugh. She smiles graciously before continuing. “But even though he’ll certainly find this mortifying, I actually feel compelled to tell you what he was doing while I was brainstorming ideas this afternoon. Y’see, he was panicking because he’d forgotten Olivia’s ring at home somewhere and couldn’t remember where it was. He was pretty terrified, to be honest.

                “Obviously our parents found the ring, and the crisis was averted, but Nathaniel… he’d been so intent on getting that ring, all because he wanted to make sure that this wedding was perfect for Olivia. Which is both very sweet and very ridiculous. Probably mostly ridiculous. It’s funny though, isn’t it? How someone can do the littlest things to show that they’re in love. I don’t think I ever heard either of them explicitly say the words until their vows this afternoon, but I sure as hell knew he was in love with Olivia from the moment he introduced her to us, and it didn’t take much for me to see that she was in love with him, too. It’s just always kind of there, on the periphery, motivating your actions in some way or another.”

                Her gaze briefly drifts to Marcus, who is looking up at her with soft eyes and, like everyone else seated before her, listening with rapt attention. Her hand twitches slightly, involuntarily, on the table and his hand is resting over it immediately, filling her with warmth.

                “Nathaniel and Olivia, you have made this beautiful, public gesture of your love for each other and I’m thrilled that we were here to see it. But please, don’t ever forget about the simple things that you do every day that serve just as well to showcase your commitment. Like, you love each other. Isn’t that really fucking cool?”

                This earns the most delighted laughter yet. Nathaniel jumps up from his seat and comes around the chairs of his groomsmen so that he can hug her, which is enough for her already watery eyes to produce a few tears, though she wipes them away quickly.

                “I can almost forgive you for letting slip the thing about the ring, that speech was so good.” He pulls away and looks at her sternly. “Almost. You probably didn’t have to let that slip in front of all of our friends and family.”

                Abby shrugs. “I said I was supposed to embarrass you.” As Nathaniel sits back down, she keeps her eyes on him and Olivia. “Anyway, all this to say, cheers to you both. Nathaniel, I’m so lucky that you’re my younger brother, and Olivia, I’m sure I speak for my parents too when I say that it’s wonderful that you’ve decided to become a part of our family. Though I hope you know we’ve seen you as family for a long time. But um, that’s enough sentimentality from me. Congratulations, you two.”

                She sits back down and another member of the wedding party stands up to make her own toast, but Marcus leans over and whispers, “I had no idea you had such a way with words.”

                “Don’t be silly, I just said what was on my mind.”

                “Well, it was beautiful.” He presses a kiss to her jaw and her heart leaps.

 

. . .

 

                They don’t get home until fairly late into the evening, after seeing Nathaniel and Olivia off at the airport. Abby’s parents head to bed as soon as they get back, but for her part, Abby is rather restless, energized from the reception, so she suggests to Marcus that they go downstairs to watch a movie.

                He settles his arm over her shoulder and she curls up against him and for a few minutes, they consider the options that Netflix presents them with. But Abby quickly discards the remote and they instead opt to sit and chat.

                “I know we’re here until Sunday, but I’m already dreading leaving,” Marcus says softly.

                She hums in agreement. “I’d say we should stick around but you’re teaching a summer school class starting Monday, aren’t you?”

                “Fuck, so I am.” He buries his face in her hair as he laughs. “I meant to sort out a final draft of my lesson plans while we were here, but I’ve hardly thought of it.”

                “You have time.” Abby pats his chest reassuringly. “I know my parents were talking about going to the parade, but we could stay in if you like.”

                “No, no, I shouldn’t be doing work on the 4th of July. I’ll have time on the plane ride home, it’s alright.”

                “Okay, if you’re sure.”

                Marcus strokes his fingers through her hair, saying nothing for several seconds. Then: “I have a question for you.”

                “Go ahead.”

                He starts carefully. “I think I’ve mentioned that at the end of July I’ve got this family thing to go to.”

                Abby sits up slightly, readjusting herself so that she can look him in the eye and give him a soft smile. “I think you mentioned something along those lines.”

                “Right. And I’ve realized that I don’t have a girlfriend to bring with me. I was wondering whether you might want to take up the role for the occasion.” Marcus swallows before adding, “And afterward, if you like.”

                Her smile grows wider and she nods. “I seem to recall you also mentioned that I’d like your mom. I’d certainly like the opportunity to find that out for myself.”

                “Cool. I’d like that too.”

                Abby giggles. “You don’t have to sound so aloof. Tell me you’re not doing cartwheels in your head right now, go on.”

                “Fine, maybe a few cartwheels.”

                “Yeah?” She grins, leaning in a bit closer toward him.

                “Okay, okay,” Marcus breathes. His gaze flickers down to her lips. “There’s a whole fleet of cartwheels going through my head. Somehow this is better than when you told me you love me. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but there you go.”

                Abby feels her heartbeat quickening. She blinks at him for a few moments, then raises her hand slowly, brushing her fingers along his jaw. “You say things like that and you make me wish…”

                “Wish what?”

                That she had realized earlier that she’d fallen for Marcus. But she doesn’t say that, because she knows he already knows. So instead she says, “Just kiss me, please.”

                His mouth is on hers, he has her pushed up against the armrest almost faster than she can finish the request. Abby’s fingers curl into his hair as she presses her tongue against his lips. He opens his mouth to her immediately, one of his hands trailing down her side and gripping her hip, holding onto her tightly.

                Marcus makes a noise of surprise into her mouth when he feels Abby’s hand on his belt. He pulls away, his face lingering only a few inches from hers. He speaks at a low whisper. “Abby, I didn’t expect… I don’t have protection.”

                “Okay. I’m sure we can still find plenty to do. If you’ve got a clean bill of health, at least.”

                “Sure do.” He glances down at her fingers, looking at the way she’s toying with his freed belt buckle. “Do you?”

                “Yes.”

                “In that case…” Marcus clambers off the couch and holds out a hand. “I’d like to get you out of that dress immediately.”

                 Abby allows him to pull her to her feet. He undoes her zipper for her, peppering kisses along her freshly exposed skin as he goes. When he reaches the bottom of the zipper, she untucks her arms from the sleeves and pushes the dress down, allowing it to pool at her feet. She stands exposed before him, wearing only her bra and underwear but she feels far from self-conscious when she sees the way he drinks her in, stepping back so that he can get a fuller view of her. As his lips curl into an eager smile, as he leans in to kiss her neck, Abby returns her hand to his belt, discarding it on the ground and untucking his dress shirt.

                Nearly as soon as she’s undone all of the buttons of his shirt, she directs her attention to his trousers, but Marcus pulls away and stills her hand. “Hang on, sit down.” She furrows her brow and a question is on her lips but he smiles playfully and rests his hand on her waist. “C’mon, just sit.”

                “Alright, alright, I’m sitting,” Abby says with a light chuckle.

                She does as he asked and he’s in front of her immediately, kneeling down on the carpeted floor and running his hands over her thighs. With his eyes on her stomach, Marcus says, “I’m going to tell you something, but I don’t want you to judge me.”

                “What is it?”

                He brushes his thumbs across her skin, biting his lip before looking up and holding her gaze. “I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve imagined doing this in your classroom.”

                There’s a brief pause as she processes this, and then in spite of herself, Abby throws her head back and lets out a delighted laugh. She looks down at him, reaches out and strokes her fingers along his cheek. “You’ve jerked off to the thought of you eating me out in my classroom?”

                “Several times.” Marcus smirks up at her, seems to wear the fact as a badge of honor. “Among other things.”

                Abby smirks back. “Maybe eventually we can give it a try.”

                “I like the sound of that.”

                Marcus ducks his head down and kisses one of her knees, then the other, before trailing his lips along her thighs. When he loops his fingers through the sides of her underwear, she raises her pelvis up from the couch and he discards her underwear, tossing it to the side so that it lands on top of her dress.

                He looks up at Abby, a smile playing at his lips. “I love you,” he says softly.

                “I love you,” she echoes and she sounds breathless.

                With one hand, he pushes her knee to the side, spreading her legs so that he can move closer to her, fitting between them. He settles his other hand on her hip, pulling her closer to him as he ducks his head to place slow kisses up her inner thighs.

                Despite the fact that it is far from a surprise, Abby lets out a gasp the moment his mouth grazes her clit. Her eyes fall shut and she drops her head back, inklings of sparks already shooting across her body from the patterns that he’s tracing with his tongue. “Shit, Marcus.”

                She buries her fingers into his hair, clutching at the couch with her other hand. Marcus reaches for her so he can thread their fingers together and she laughs breathlessly, delighted by the sentimental gesture.

                The tension building in her gut has her feeling increasingly flushed and she loses herself in it, in the feeling of his clever mouth and tongue and fingers driving her closer and closer to ecstasy. Abby’s gasps become increasingly desperate and time stretches out before her—it simultaneously feels like an instant and an eternity later that she realizes she is close to climaxing.

                “Marcus, I’m…” She trails off, losing her train of thought as his fingers curl inside of her and his tongue flicks over her clit. Instead of finishing whatever her first sentence was going to be, she tugs harder on his hair and says, “God, I love you.”

                He doesn’t answer, just squeezes her hand, but Abby comes only seconds later with a moan, her body trembling and her grip on Marcus tightening. As she’s coming down from her orgasm, she has just enough presence of mind to say, “Please get those pants off.”

                At her request, he stumbles to his feet and tugs off his trousers. As soon as he’s tossed them aside, Abby is off the couch, rising to her feet partway purely so that she can push Marcus to the floor. She straddles him and brushes her hair from her eyes. “I’d hate for us to ruin rented trousers. I think it’s your turn, yeah?”

                “God do I like the sound of that.”

                She smirks, leaning down and kissing him hard.


	7. Chapter 7

**Saturday, July 4 th**

 

                Despite the fact that Nathaniel and Olivia have left for their honeymoon, Abby’s parents and Olivia’s parents decide that it would be nice if the remaining parents and children spend the Fourth together, so they all meet up to go to the parade that day.

                The weather is remarkably mild and Abby finds herself enjoying it far more than she’s enjoyed it in years. It certainly also helps that Marcus is seated on the curb next to her, making whispered comments about each club, marching band, float, politician passing them by. When he remarks that one band’s color guard uniforms make them look like giant penises, she starts laughing so hard that her parents lean down to make sure that she isn’t choking.

                From the parade, they all go out for a late lunch, during which Marcus gets into a debate with Olivia’s siblings over the merits of various modernist poets when he mentions that he’ll be spending some time on them in his upcoming summer school class. For her part, Abby knows very little about poets from any era, but she love how enthusiastic he gets and she listens to the whole exchange with a smile.

                They all plan to drive back to the vacation house after eating, but as they’re leaving the restaurant, Marcus turns to Abby and her parents and says, “Hey, you guys go ahead. I saw that there was a Walgreens on the corner back there and I just want to stop in really quick.”

                “Are you sure you wouldn’t like us to wait?” Abby asks, looking up at him curiously. He hadn’t mentioned anything about wanting to stop at any stores, and she can’t help but wonder about what he’s suddenly decided he wants to buy.

                “No, no, that’s alright. I’ll be in and out in two minutes, tops. If I run fast enough I might even beat you to the car.”

                She nods slightly. “Alright. See you soon.” She squeezes his hand and pulls him closer so that she can give him a peck on the lips. He smiles against her mouth.

                Marcus jogs off in one direction while Abby and her parents go in the other.

                “Do you know what he’s looking for?”

                “I have no clue,” Abby says. She glances back over her shoulder just in time to see Marcus turn into the Walgreens. “Something we don’t have at home, I guess.” As soon as she says this, a thought occurs to her and she presses her face into her hand, giggling and muttering, “Oh my God.”

                The three of them reach the car before Marcus does, despite his reassurances, and they linger outside, leaning against the car and chatting. But he appears not long after, carrying a plastic bag in one hand and an open bottle of Coke in the other. “Sorry, there was a long line,” he says as he leans in to kiss Abby on the cheek.

                “No worries, we’re in no hurry.” While her parents get into the car, Abby grabs Marcus’s wrist before he can pull away. Under her breath, she says, “You couldn’t wait one more day?”

                He smirks. “What are you implying, Abigail?”

                “You know very well.”

                Instead of answering, Marcus opens the car door and gesture that she get in. She slides to the far side of the car and he climbs in after her. In the front seat, Abby’s parents are chattering about the food that they’ll be preparing for dinner. After a few moments of silence in the back seat, Marcus clears his throat and mutters, “I _could_ wait, but I don’t want to. Do you?”

                She looks him up and down, biting her lip. “Not really.”

                Marcus raises his eyebrows and nods slightly, grinning. “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

                “Abigail, darling.” Her mother interrupts the conversation and both Abby and Marcus sit up a bit straighter, looking forward. “Are you planning on helping your father with grilling tonight?”

                “Yeah, of course, I always do. What would make this time any different?”

                “We weren’t sure if you might want to just relax with Marcus.”

                “No, no, that’s alright.”

                “Maybe I can even help,” Marcus offers. “I’ve always loved cooking.”

                “Oh, that’s an excellent idea! Marcus really is a great cook,” Abby says, looking over at Marcus with a proud smile. “If you’d like, Dad, Marcus and I could even take care of all the grilling tonight. It would give you a nice break.”

                “That sounds like a wonderful idea,” her dad says eagerly, looking back at them with a grin. “I could get used to this.”

                When they arrive back at the house, much of Olivia’s family has already gotten there. Everyone congregates on the back deck, very quickly spreading out onto the beach. Olivia’s brother has a playlist of music playing on a portable speaker. Some of them occasionally wander into the water to swim, but for the most part the two families intermingle, playing soccer out on the sand and card games on the deck.

                By the time Marcus and Abby start up the grill in the early evening, the pervading energy throughout the group has calmed somewhat and they are all sitting around the table on the deck while they wait for food.

                Marcus and Abby confer quietly, divvying up tasks, and decide that Abby would take care of the hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats, and Marcus would keep an eye on them and lay out buns to toast slightly when the meat is almost ready. They are thus occupied when Abby’s father suddenly speaks above the other conversations. “Y’know, Abby, your mother and I’ve been wondering something, but I didn’t really want to distract from the wedding by asking about it.”

                “What is it, Dad?” She doesn’t bother to look up at him, more focused on making sure that her mother’s hamburger comes off the grill medium rare than on whatever her father wants to know.

                “Any chance of another wedding on the horizon any time soon?”

                This gets Abby’s attention, and she lifts her head sharply to look at him, her mouth opening but no words coming out.

                She and Marcus have not discussed this potential question since they were at his place the week before – she can’t believe that it was only a week ago, it feels like an eternity to her now – because even after their little revelation at the rehearsal dinner, she figured it wasn’t necessary. If they were going to have to field that question, surely someone would have asked it already.

                But now it feels inappropriate to give their staged response. Even if maybe Abby already can imagine marrying Marcus down the line, even if the theoretical concept does not terrify her like it probably should at such a remarkably early point in their relationship.

                “We’re not really talking about it right now,” Marcus starts slowly. Abby turns her head and sees that he’s watching her a bit nervously as he says, “But I’d certainly like to see it as the endgame.”

                “Me too,” she agrees, her voice so low that she wouldn’t be surprised if Marcus is the only one who hears. But his reaction is the only one she cares about, and when a soft smile spreads across his face that’s enough for her.

                “Fair enough,” Abby’s mother says. “I hope you know, Marcus, that what Abby said to Olivia yesterday stands true for you, too. We already feel like you’re a part of the family.”

                He nods his head graciously. “I really appreciate that, thank you. That means a lot, coming from Abby’s parents.”

                Abby smiles and rubs Marcus’s back gently—he leans into her touch as he holds out a plate with a bun on it so that she can remove her mother’s hamburger from the grill.

                “Shouldn’t we be talking about more exciting things?” Abby asks, in an attempt to turn some of the focus away from her and Marcus’s rather complex situation. “Nathaniel told me that he and Olivia are already talking about kids.”

                “They’re what?” A chorus of voices echo from all around the table, all looking to Abby in surprise.

                “Oh.” She flinches, glancing over at Marcus and making a face. Whoops. “Have they not… told any of you?”

                “Not so much, no.”

                Her gaze shifts from one person to the next, taking in their surprised but – for the most part – excited expressions. “I guess we’ll just have to all pretend that I didn’t spill the beans,” she says helplessly.

                They all chuckle and shrug, all beginning to speculate about how Nathaniel and Olivia will be as parents. But Abby is blushing, and Marcus laughs and leans down to kiss her temple. “You didn’t know, babe, don’t feel bad. You should just feel flattered that he wanted to tell you first.”

                Abby looks up at him, startled, as she considers this. “That is pretty cool, isn’t it?”

                “It is.”

                Marcus and Abby finish up with the grill not long after, at which point they join everyone else at the table to eat. Once they are all finished, they migrate out onto the beach, laying out blankets and sprawling out across them. The fireworks aren’t due to start for nearly two hours yet but other families from the vacation houses along the beach are also beginning to come outside, sitting spread out across the sand.

                A large group of college students comes along and asks if anyone would like to join in a pick-up game of soccer and Olivia’s brother and sister agree, leaving Abby and Marcus alone with the two sets of parents, who are chatting amongst themselves. Abby and Marcus, feeling far from left out, are rather content to lie back together and look up at the sky, watching the light slowly fade. She has her head resting on his shoulder and Marcus presses occasional kisses into her hair but for the most part, they are silent.

                Eventually, Abby sits up, surveying the ocean for a few moments before looking down at Marcus. “Want to swim for a little bit before it gets too dark?”

                “Yeah, actually, that sounds really nice.” He allows Abby to pull him to his feet and toward the water, rubbing his thumb over the inside of her wrist and smirking playfully when she looks back at him. “What?” he asks.

                She’s reached the edge of the water and waves lap gently at her feet as she considers him. “I guess it’s finally hit me just how happy you’ve been since Thursday night. It’s… I like seeing this side of you.”

                “Thanks. It’s all your fault.”

                “Oh, alright, so you’re complaining,” Abby replies with a laugh. “Then I’ll just go, shall I?” She releases his hand and, for lack of a more suitable exit, marches straight out into the ocean.

                “No no no no no, please don’t.” Marcus rushes out after her but she laughs again before submerging herself and swimming toward deeper water. He follows in her wake, and when she stops, she stops so abruptly that he almost bumps into her.

                He resurfaces as well, shaking his hair out before pushing his damp bangs from his eyes. “Whoa. Déjà vu.”

                “Really?”

                “Mhm,” he hums. “Although I couldn’t do this on Thursday, regardless of how much I wanted to.” Abby smirks as Marcus draws a bit closer, and she closes the remaining space between them herself so that she can kiss him.

                He reaches out to grab her at the waist, holding onto her as they deepen the kiss. Exhilaration rushes over her; her pulse picks up and her stomach churns and it only makes her press closer to him. Abby ghosts her hands across his back, absent-mindedly digging her fingernails into the skin and Marcus gasps into her mouth, his grip on her waist tightening.

                “God, if there weren’t anyone out on that beach,” she breathes as soon as he pulls away for air.

                Marcus scoffs. “I bet they wouldn’t even notice.” As if to make his point, he leans in close again, pressing slow, pointed kisses across her forehead, her cheeks, her nose, her jaw. His hand grazes her hip and she thinks he’s going to rest it there but he doesn’t—instead, his fingers trail down between her legs.

                When he hears Abby’s sharp intake of breath, he laughs, his lips only barely brushing the shell of her ear. “You alright, Abigail?”

                “Are you seriously doing this right now?”

                “What?” He freezes, pulling back to look at her with mild concern.

                She swallows. “You can’t turn me on now, not when we have to go and wait around for the fireworks with my parents. I don’t think I could stand it.”

                For a moment, Marcus hesitates before: “We could always just… go inside now. Maybe—”

                “Don’t say it.”

                “Make some fireworks of our own.”

                “I can’t believe you said it,” Abby groans, pressing her forehead against his chest, but even so she can’t help laughing.

                “So is that a yes?”

                Abby squeezes her eyes shut and bites her lip as she considers the question. Honestly, she’d quite like to just say fuck it to waiting around for the fireworks; since he’d admitted to buying condoms while they were out earlier that day, she’s been brimming over with excitement and anticipation and although she’s done a sufficient job of ignoring it, she doesn’t think she wants to wait around anymore.

                “But we can’t just run off.” She moves away so that she can look up at Marcus without having to crane her neck.

                “How come?”

                “Won’t my family realize what we’re up to when we don’t come back?”

                Marcus chuckles. “They’ll probably know the second we disappear into the house. But they won’t care. They’ll laugh and move on and your parents will probably try their best to never again think about their little girl having sex. So…” He lowers his voice despite the fact that they are well out into the ocean and there is no one anywhere near them. “If I want to go, and you do too, what are we waiting for?”

                “I…” Abby falters in the middle of raising an objection when she realizes that she doesn’t really have any. Because he’s right. No one else will care. So if she wants to go off and sleep with her boyfriend, she damn well should. “Oh, fuck it. Let’s go.”

                At this, he grins eagerly.

                They return back to the beach a lot more quickly than they ventured into the water and they rejoin the two sets of parents, who have cracked open a cooler and are enjoying bottles of beer. As Abby and Marcus towel off, her mother asks, “Would either of you like a drink?”

                “No, no, that’s alright,” Marcus rushes to say.

                “Yeah, Marcus and I were actually talking about calling it a night.”

                “What? Already?” Her dad blinks up at them in surprise. “But we haven’t even gotten to the fireworks yet.”

                She glances over at Marcus as he’s running the towel over his hair, swallowing sharply at the sight of his skin, which is still glistening slightly in the soft light of dusk. She prays that the blush creeping up her neck isn’t too visible. “That’s alright. The view from our window is quite good, we should be able to see them anyway.”

                “Okay. Well, if you’re sure…”

                It’s been years since Abby felt so sure about anything.

                “We’ll probably be out here for a while after the fireworks,” her mom adds. “So might as well take the opportunity right now to say goodnight to you both. Don’t forget, your flight tomorrow is rather early, so set an alarm.”

                Abby rolls her eyes at her mother’s reminder, primarily because she feels rather certain that it’s more of a reminder to not stay up too late, rather than to set an alarm. But she thanks her anyway. As she pulls on her shorts and she and Marcus collect their things, they bid everyone goodnight. Then, finally, they are headed back up to the house, both of them trying their best to move at a slow, reasonable pace.

                Immediately upon stepping inside, they drop everything onto the kitchen table and moments later Abby is kissing him, nibbling on his lower lip playfully. They stumble toward the doorway and find this to be fairly unsuccessful so they break apart, but Marcus pulls her into renewed, eager kisses every couple of feet until they finally reach the stairs. She rushes up first, almost tripping forward when Marcus knocks into her in his hurry.

                By the time they reach the top of the steps, they are both giggling. Abby turns on her heel to face him again at the same moment that he reaches for her and they share another smiling kiss, his arms wrapped loosely around her waist.

                “C’mon,” she says between light kisses. “There’s a bed right down the hall.”

                “Right, okay.” He pulls away again and nudges her toward her room. “Let’s go, please.”

                Abby shuts the door behind Marcus and, after a moment’s consideration, locks it—although she doesn’t expect any interruptions, she remembers with great clarity the times that her parents walked in on her and Jake in various states of undress in this very house, and figures that they shouldn’t risk it.

                “What do you think?” Marcus asks, glancing over the bed. “Would this comforter be ruined if I sat down in my wet swim trunks?”

                “Fuck if I know,” she says with a sigh. Her first instinct is yes, but she doesn’t tell him this. “Let’s guess no?” she suggests as she steps closer to him. The back of his knees knock against the mattress and he sits reflexively, eyes glinting as Abby closes the space between them and sits in his lap, straddling his legs.

                They gaze at each other for a few seconds, totally silent. Marcus is smiling rather smugly as he settles his hands at her waist. She commits the image to memory before leaning down and kissing him, cupping his cheek in one hand while her other hand goes to its already familiar spot in his hair.

                As they kiss, his fingers dance down her legs and back up before he reaches back up to clutch her waist again so that he can grip her tightly while trailing his mouth down her neck. Abby tilts her head to the side to give him better access, making a little noise of satisfaction when he sucks and bites on the spot where her neck meets her shoulder.

                When he pulls away, the first words to come out of Marcus’s mouth are, “You taste salty,” accompanied by a chuckle.

                “I wonder why.” She glances pointedly out the window, toward the ocean.

                “No, no, that probably doesn’t have anything to do with it.” Abby rolls her eyes at Marcus’s cheeky grin as he kisses her on the lips again. He cups one of her breasts gently and pushes the material of her swimsuit aside, savoring the way that she lets out another soft hum as he starts to thumb over her nipple.

                He stops kissing her and his hand disappears all at once and Abby pouts in spite of herself, asking, “What are you doing?”

                “I just want to get this top off you.” Marcus fiddles with the knot at her neck first, untying that one while Abby reaches behind herself so that she can take care of the knot on her back.

                The top falls free into her hands and she drops it unceremoniously on the ground behind her before leaning in and kissing Marcus with renewed vigor. She leans forward and presses him down onto his back; his head knocks back and their noses bump together, making them giggle.

                “Can we switch?” he asks suddenly.

                “Yeah, of course.” Abby pulls back immediately, taking the opportunity to move them further up the bed so that she can rest her head on a pillow while Marcus settles over her. Before he can lean in to kiss her again, she smiles softly and says, “I like this, it feels safe.”

                “I’m glad.” He does kiss her then, lightly at first but Abby deepens it immediately. She savors the way his bare chest feels against her breasts and she grips his shoulders hard, pulling him closer because she finds that anywhere her skin is bare, she wants to be touching him. His leg rests between her thighs and she grinds against it experimentally. Her eyelids flutter closed as she sighs into his mouth and she thinks, vaguely, that she could do this for hours before even getting to sex.

                But after a very brief period of this, she feels his erection pressing against her thigh and remembers the churning in her gut and she really, really doesn’t want to wait that long. Not this time, at least.

                “Marcus, hang on.”

                “What?” He looks worried as he moves away, though in doing so, he settles back further onto her leg and Abby only becomes more aware of the way his cock is straining against his swim trunks.

                She knows she must have already been flushed but she feels even warmer as she says, “I’d really like to fuck you.”

                “Oh.” The word comes out sounding higher than normal and he blushes as he continues. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

                 Abby can’t help giggling—while she wants to laugh harder, she’s feeling too breathless for that. “I appreciate your concern. Yes, I’m good. Though if you’re really worried, I suppose that while you’re fetching a condom, I could get started without you.”

                He stares at her stupidly as he processes this. Then: “I will be _right_ back.”

                She watches as he leaps off the bed and scampers over to the Walgreens bag, which he left lying on his suitcase. While he is fumbling to open the box and pull out a condom, Abby shifts, lifting her pelvis up so that she can pull off her swimsuit bottoms. When she looks over at Marcus again he is stepping out of his swim trunks and she sits up and licks her lips unconsciously, her gaze trailing up and down his body as she takes in the sight of him.

                Marcus sees the way that she’s staring at him and he freezes in the middle of trying to open the foil wrapper in his hand. “What is it?”

                Abby informs him, “You’re really hot.”

                He preens at the compliment, taking two strides back to the bed and crawling over to her so that he can give her an eager kiss. Then he sits back and, as he opens the condom, he asks, “How would you like to do this?”

                “Do you have any preference?”

                “Can we…” Marcus temporarily falters as Abby reaches out and takes the condom from him, and he swallows when she starts to gently roll it onto his dick. “I’d just like to be able to kiss you.”

                “I’d like that too,” she agrees, smiling softly. “Let’s say you can be on top this time, then.”

                So she lies back again and Marcus scoots in between her legs, ducking down to kiss her hard. He anchors himself with a hand beside her pillow and his other hand brushes her hip as he moves to press it gently between her thighs.

                “Marcus,” Abby grumbles, squirming beneath him even as he grazes his thumb over her clit, even as her breath catches and her stomach flips. “We have all the time in the world for this later, I want to fuck now.”

                And then she lets out a gasp, because while she was chastising him, Marcus had shifted and now he pushes into her slowly. Her grip on his shoulders tightens as he fills her and she digs her nails into the skin. He stills and lets out a low groan, pressing his forehead against her shoulder.  “Christ, Abby.”

                “Yeah?”

                He nods slowly, moving his head back after a few seconds so that he can look at her. “I just… this is real.”

                It seems as though he says this more for his benefit than for hers, but Abby nods too, wanting to make sure that he’s processed the situation to his satisfaction before they continue.

                “When I wake up tomorrow you’re going to be right here next to me.” At this, she nods again. “Because you really love me,” he whispers.

                “I love you,” she agrees.

                Marcus’s features soften. “I just like hearing that.”

                Abby curls a hand into his hair, pulling him close so that she can kiss him lightly. “I’ll say it as often as you want.”

                With that, he begins to move, pulling away slowly, experimentally, before pressing back into her again. She rolls her hips instinctually in an effort to get him to pick up some momentum and he smirks. “Yes, Abigail?”

                “Some of us are trying to have sex, here.”

                He begins to pick up the pace as he leans down to kiss her.

                Their kisses gradually become sloppy, their movements erratic. Marcus eventually directs his attention to her neck and no longer hindered by his mouth on hers, Abby begins to gasp and moan. She can feel tension building up in her fingers and toes, knows that she’s close to coming, but based on Marcus’s ragged breathing, so is he, and she has trouble believing that he will be able to hold on long enough to bring her to an orgasm.

                She loosens her grip on him so that she can reach down with one hand and she finds her clit, rubbing it in conjunction with each thrust.

                “Just a little longer,” Abby breathes into his ear. “Please don’t come, I want you inside me when I climax.”

                Abby repeats the words a few times, low and desperate and it doesn’t seem to be doing much to keep Marcus focused on not coming because he stops kissing and sucking at her neck so that he can pull away and gasp, “Say that once more and I _am_ gonna come,” before kissing her again, on the lips this time.

                His arm shifts and some of his fingers come to rest on her hair. Something about the sudden pressure of the sensation in combination with everything else – his tongue tracing through her mouth and his back, firm under her hand and his cock filling her completely with each stroke – is enough to push her over the edge and she moans into his mouth.

                Just the sound of Abby’s climax and the feeling of her trembling beneath him is enough to make Marcus come too and his limbs buckle all at once as he lets out an inelegant guttural groan.

                She scatters dazed kisses across his face for a few moments, but they are both startled by the sound of an explosion outside the window.

                When there is a second, and then a third, the two of them then process the fact that it’s the fireworks starting up and they start to laugh while Marcus moves away so that he can discard their used condom in the trash.

                He rejoins her on the bed and grins when she grabs his hand and burrows her head up against his chest as she says, “So we should watch the fireworks, and then go shower.”

                “Then maybe round two?”

                Abby turns around so she can look him in the eye. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

                Both of them turn their attention to the fireworks after that, but Marcus presses a lingering kiss to the crown of her head.


	8. Chapter 8

**6 months later**

**Thursday, December 31 st**

 

                Thelonious and his wife have been throwing New Year’s parties for as long as Abby and Marcus have known him. Abby has never been to one before (much to Marcus’s chagrin; in recent years, he’d gone mostly in the hopes that Abby would also be in attendance), but for their first New Year’s as a couple, they find themselves on their way to Thelonious’s house.

                “I hope we’re not too late,” Marcus mumbles, glancing at the clock for at least the twentieth time since they got in the car.

                Abby looks away from the road just long enough so that she can smirk at him. “It started fifteen minutes ago. We’ll probably be among the first ones there.”

                “I know, I know, I just like to be punctual.”

                She doesn’t say anything, instead opting to reach over and grab his hand so that she can give it a gentle squeeze.

                But traffic starts to pick up as they near Thelonious’s. By the time they pull onto his street, a large number of people _have_ already arrived. Both sides of the street are crammed with cars, and they end up having to park around the block.

                “Not to say I told you so…” he begins as they step out of the car.

                “You told me so,” Abby agrees gently, pressing a kiss to his cheek when she reaches him at the curb. “Let’s go shock Thelonious with our tardiness.”

                They stroll down the sidewalk hand-in-hand, reaching Thelonious’s gate at the same moment as David Miller, another English teacher and one of Marcus’s closest friends. “David! Hi. No Nathan tonight?”

                As David pulls the gate open to allow them through, he frowns. “Unfortunately not. He’s been sick for the past few days.”

                “Oh no!” Abby furrows her brow. “Wells and Bell are going to be disappointed.”

                Marcus chuckles lightly. “Probably not as disappointed as Nathan is.”

                “Too true,” David agrees with a laugh. “This is the first time since he was five that he hasn’t come with us, so he’s pretty bitter about it. Sandra only talked him into staying home by promising to bring a slice of Renée’s chocolate cake back.”

                “Mmm, that’s fair,” Marcus muses. He and Abby go to ring the doorbell at the same time but he gets to it first. He smirks and presses a quick kiss to the crown of her head before continuing. “I would risk infecting everyone at the Jaha New Year’s party with the plague if it meant that I’d get one slice of Renée’s cake.”

                Noise floods out onto the porch as Thelonious opens the door and greets them all with an eager smile and a flurry of hugs, despite the fact that school had only gotten out for winter break a few days prior.

                “Abby, I’m glad you’ve finally decided to come,” he says when he gets to her.

                “Me too.” She smiles eagerly.

                “Me three,” Marcus offers, grinning when she looks up purely so that she can rolls her eyes at him.

                Thelonious laughs and pulls Marcus in for a quick hug before asking, “I can take your coats, I’ll just put them in the first bedroom upstairs.”

                After shrugging off their coats and scarves, Abby and Marcus duck into the living room, taking in the guests. As they stand in the doorway, a flock of kids stumble past them, eagerly running between the adults who are scattered across the room. Octavia stumbles into her mother and tries to pass it off as nothing, but Aurora stops her for a moment so that she can gently remind her to be careful.

                “Do you want a drink?” Marcus asks Abby quietly.

                She nods. “Some root beer would be nice.”

                “Water if they don’t have any?”

                “Yes please.”

                Marcus nods and gives her a quick peck on the cheek before disappearing in the direction of what she assumes must be the kitchen. Surveying the living room again, she catches sight of Sinclair just in time for him to make eye contact with her and they exchange a smile before she crosses the room to chat with him.

                When Marcus finds them, they are engaged in an extensive conversation about Sinclair’s proposed changes to his physics curriculum.

                “I see you’re strictly adhering to Thelonious’s rule to leave all work conversation at the door,” he remarks as he holds out a can of pop for Abby to claim.

                “We’ll start adhering to that rule in a moment,” Abby assures him. “But yesterday Sinclair saw a great idea online for a project that he wants to do with his kids right after break and it involves some adjustments to the curriculum. He just wanted to make sure he could go ahead and plan.”

                “Ah, okay.” He looks between Abby and Sinclair. “What was the verdict?”

                “I think it sounds like a great idea. I’ll want to look at it more over the summer to figure out a neater way to make it come together, but for now I’m happy.” She takes a sip of root beer and glances at Marcus. “Okay, I’m done.”

                Abby smiles slightly against the aluminum can when Marcus reaches out for her free hand and curls their fingers together before he says, “Great, then I won’t feel bad asking Sinclair how he’s been.”

                The two of them gradually wend through the party. They split up occasionally, as someone might appear who wants to chat with Marcus or Abby while the other is engaged in conversation. Abby spends ten minutes trying to get some food only to return with a horror story about how Charles Pike cornered her so that he could ask again whether the school could start the process to get him AP-certified.

                But for the most part, they stay together. It’s not a conscious move, really—it just feels right to both Abby and Marcus that the other be by their side.

                For many of their coworkers’ spouses, this is the first time that Abby and Marcus have encountered them since starting to date the previous summer. After Renée Jaha is the fifth person to tell them that she’s so thrilled to see them happy together, they stop keeping track of the comments that they receive. That said, Marcus _does_ begin to provide Abby with a whispered tally of the number of people who describe their excitement for the couple by saying that they are “delighted.”

                At some point around 10:30, Marcus and Abby find themselves in the kitchen with the whole flock of faculty children. A vast majority of them, Abby has only ever heard about from their parents, so Marcus takes the time to introduce her to all of them.

                Some of the younger ones are rather shy, but Raven Reyes gets excited when she finds out that Abby is a science teacher and before Abby knows what hit her, she finds herself completely in over her head in an extensive discussion about what classes Raven should take in high school and what schools she should look at if she wants to be an aerospace engineer. All because, as she puts it, “Mom doesn’t know a thing about science, she just goes on and on about US history all the time.”

                It’s not until the kids head down to the basement to resume what is apparently a very competitive Mario Kart tournament that Abby turns to Marcus and says, “Why did she think I’d be any help? I’m a biology teacher.”

                “I thought you were very helpful,” he tells her gently, leaning back against the Jahas’ kitchen counter. “Sure, maybe you weren’t able to give her real specifics about college, but she really just wanted to get excited with someone about science for a few minutes. In that respect, I promise you’re _incredibly_ capable. And before you argue, I’d like to remind you of the night you woke me up at 2:30am to tell me that they found water on Mars.”

                “You’re never going to let me forget that,” she grumbles.

                “Why should I? It was very charming.”

                Abby stands on her tiptoes so that she can press a kiss to Marcus’s cheek, but he turns his head and she half catches his grinning mouth.

                They hear footsteps approaching and despite the fact that they are not guilty of anything, Abby pulls away quickly and settles against the counter beside him, taking a large gulp of her water.

                It turns out to be Thelonious. He smiles easily at them both as he crosses the room to get to the drink cooler. “Abby, Marcus, you two enjoying yourselves?”

                “Yes,” Marcus tells him at the same moment that Abby says, “Very much.”

                After peering through the cooler for a few moments, Thelonious pulls a bottle of beer out. While he’s fiddling with the bottle opener, he looks up as if suddenly remembering something very important. “Oh, Marcus! I was going through the staff directory while planning next semester’s team building exercises and I couldn’t help but notice that you changed your address sometime in the last few weeks. Do I take that to mean…?”

                Both Abby and Marcus are mildly surprised that Thelonious even brought it up, let alone so nonchalantly, but they mask it well and Marcus rushes to say, “Yeah, we just moved the last of my stuff out of my apartment yesterday. I’ve essentially been living at Abby’s since September but my lease ends tomorrow so we figured we’d just make it official.”

                “That’s wonderful news. I’m delighted to hear it.”

                Marcus nudges Abby lightly in the side and she has to work very hard to keep herself from laughing.

                As midnight draws closer, some of the attendees with younger children begin to filter out. The energy of the crowd lulls slightly around 11 o’clock but at about 11:30 it begins to pick up again and a loud, steady buzz of conversation filters through the rooms. Abby wanders away from Marcus briefly to go to the bathroom and when she finds him again, he is in the vestibule, sitting perched on the stairs.

                She joins him immediately—he moves to the side wordlessly so that she can sit beside him and he smiles when she immediately claims his hand.

                “You alright?” she asks.

                “Mhm. You alright?”

                “Yeah. I don’t think I’ll want to stick around much past midnight but for now I’m fine.”

                “Alright.” Marcus squeezes her hand gently.

                For a brief period, they sit in a comfortable silence together. Abby plays with his fingers in her lap and he’s about to ask her if she wants to rejoin the crowd when she asks, “So what’s something you want to do this year?”

                “What?”

                “Do you have somewhere you’d like to travel? Do you want to finally read _Moby Dick_? What’s something you want to do this year? Literally anything.”

                “Um…” He turns to look at her, giving her a slight smirk. “I want to take you to the Renaissance Faire. Several times. Secondary goal of maybe talking you into getting sized for a dress while we’re there.”

                Abby giggles and turns, resting her forehead against his shoulder as she laughs. “That sounds manageable.”

                “Excellent.” Marcus presses a lingering kiss into her hair and waits until she has finished giggling before he asks, “And what about you? What do you want to do this year?”

                Her gaze is on their interlocked fingers as she says, “Well, a lot of things come to mind, but I think I want to get married.”

                “Really?” He immediately sits up, leaning as far away from her as possible so that he can get a good look at her. “Shit, yeah, let’s do it.”

                She makes a face at him. “This is awkward. I was actually planning on asking Sinclair…”

                In the span of a few moments, Marcus’s expression shifts abruptly from mild panic to an exasperated eye roll to an amused smile. “I can’t believe I let that freak me out when he’s been living with his boyfriend for over two years.”

                As a means of reassurance, Abby kisses him briefly, giggling against his lips as she does so. When she pulls back, she tells him, “You can still get me an engagement ring and propose if you want. I know you’ve always thought it would be fun to plan a surprise proposal and I don’t mean to steal your thunder. I just… I want to get married.”

                “Me too,” Marcus agrees, his voice soft but eager. “I think both of us have very manageable New Year’s resolutions.”

                “Good, I’m delighted to hear it.”

                He groans. “Don’t you start with that…” But his protestations are cut short when Abby kisses him again.

                They rejoin the crowd after that and the rest of the party races past in a flash. After exchanging a chaste kiss at midnight, they begin to make their rounds and say their goodbyes, and it’s about twenty minutes later that they’re finally fetching their coats from the bedroom upstairs. They enter into the flood of families leaving, exchanging amused smiles because of the numerous children complaining that they wish they could just stay for another half hour.

                Abby can’t help letting out a sigh of relief when they finally settle into her car.

                “Long night,” Marcus muses.

                She nods. “Fun, though. Just… promise me a quiet New Year’s.”

                “Sure. What do you say we stay in bed all morning, then I’ll make a late brunch and we can have a _Planet Earth_ marathon?”

                Before starting up the car, she giggles and nods, leaning over and lightly kissing his jaw. “You do know how to show a girl a good time.”


End file.
